kmkat and her kneedles

We wimp out.

Sometimes the great outdoors is just too... outdoors-ish. After nice weather for the first half of the week, on Thursday it turned rainy and cold.

The last straw was when it snowed on Saturday.

I proposed that we check into the Super 8 motel in Buffalo for one night. Sleep in real beds (one each!) and take showers and enjoy the free wi-fi. After some discussion and a check of the weather forecast -- Sunday looked even worse than Saturday -- we decided to endure Saturday night in the camper in the cold/snow/rain and check into the motel as early as possible on Sunday.

So here I am, sitting in a real chair typing this blog post. Sadly, we managed to break the aged laptop I had been using (bought for Andrew when he went away to college in 2003) -- there were even some sparks! I am typing on Smokey's netbook. Keyboard is too small for effective touch typing -- although I keep trying -- and it doesn't recognize my camera, so no pictures today. But it IS internet access and I won't whine.

Speaking of internet access, we have found a surprising number of *hot spots*, some intentional, like in restaurants, and some not, like in the parking lot of the Family Dollar store. My little iPod Touch is getting a workout :)

Now it is time for me to take advantage of the shower and for Smokey to get out his tools and repair some laptops. Maybe there will be photos tomorrow. Knitting, a rodeo, other notable sights...

Wyoming!

 We are here.The knitting has commenced.

 

Yarn: Valley Superwash DK (100% superwash merino). Navy, plus stripes (from the top) in maroon (no longer available), teal, biscuit, grass, wild rose, forest, misty lilac, and navy.
Needles: Addi Turbo US#5 (3.75mm) circ.
Size: L
Pattern: Pattern? I don' need no steekin' pattern! Cast on 102 st in navy; join. Purl 6 rounds. Knit 4 rounds. Change to lilac; purl 6 rounds. Knit 4 rounds navy. Purl 6 rounds forest. Continue in color pattern as established, end purl 6 rounds maroon. Knit 1 round navy. Decrease for top in usual manner.

That is a chemo hat for a local Relay for Life later this month. The hats will be judged on originality, craftsmanship, overall appeal, etc. Winner(s) will get gift basket(s) from the LYS that is sponsoring the contest. All hats will go into a silent auction, proceeds to the Relay.

I started this hat in April. Why it took me until June 9th to finish it is a total mystery, but it may be related to my inability to count. I will drop the hat into the mail today and hope that it makes it to Wisconsin by the deadline on the 12th.

* * * * *

Others may vacation with/for the wine, women, and song. I do it with/for the wine, books, and yarn.

 

* * * * *

Observe, the majestic moose:

Frankly, this moose is more mangy than majestic. His coat is scraggly because he is shedding his winter coat, his ribs are showing because the grass is just greening up, and he is (I think) a yearling so is gangly and awkward. But he will be majestic...someday.

Enough with the majestic potential. Now for the cute.

Hey, you lookin' at me?

Never mind. I've got another idea...

 

Mama!

The itch factory is closed.

Yay! The dermatologist (Dr. Anastasios Pappas from South Dakota!) had a miracle cure.

First, he prescribed Predisone but pretty much told me not to take it. Check.

Then he described the cortisone cream I had been using as "baby stuff" and prescribed a stronger one. Check.

Then he told me about a time-consuming, putzy procedure that was guaranteed to work. O-kay...

Step one: apply a minimal dose of the cream to the affected area.

Step two: apply a thin layer of a particular over-the-counter ointment; in this case, Lubriderm Extra Special Super-Duper Skin Healing Ointment (not the exact title).

Step three: cover the area with tight-fitting wet cloth -- long johns, whatever works.

Step four: encase the area in a waterproof covering -- a windbreaker, a plastic bag, whatever works.

Step five: Leave this in place for an hour.

Step six: Do it twice a day.

Check!

 

The first time I did it, I couldn't stand more than 45 minutes because the skin started itching. I ripped off the coverings and scratched. It was the most orgasmic, non-sexual sensation I have ever felt. Srsly.

Ahem.

The second time was a bit better, and I was able to leave the wrappings on for the full hour. After two treatments my skin was much, much better. Still a bit itchy, but nearly normal-looking on the upper arms.

In fact, it was so much better that during the couple days we spent packing and running errands and stopping the mail and tying up loose ends before the trip, I only did it once a day.

Whew. We were both afraid that we might have to cancel the trip, or, potentially worse, endure the itchy agony for the entire vacation.

* * * * *

Laundromat trip one day this week (that's five baskets; one is hiding behind the other four):

 

Washing machine still broken and will stay that way until we get home.

Dishwasher has decided not to drain. Ditto.

Two words.

ROAD TRIP!

Yes, indeedy, the day of our departure on the annual quasi-pseudo-camping vacation approaches. A couple weeks ago Our Man Lennie replaced the transmission in the $750 mini-motorhome, and last week one of Lennie's Minions painted it. (When you only pay $750 for a vehicle, you can justify putting another thou into it.)

On Sunday I started cleaning the inside, but ran out of energy right about even with the back edge of those side doors. There was stuff filling the empty space in the rest, and I didn't have the energy to move it. Yeah, sometimes I'm kinda... low energy.

Another view:

Big honker, isn't it? Especially sitting next to my minivan. If we get 12 mpg we will be thrilled.

Mea culpa for the massive carbon footprint we will leave.

Here is the cab, complete with Smokey's briefcase and trash. Note the curtains, which can be pulled all the way around the front to cover the windshield for privacy when we are parked. He put in a new oak drink holder rack in the center and showed me the new oak dashboard cover for the instrument cluster.

He is like a kid with a new toy, which, really, is exactly what he is right now. After 35 years of vacations in VW microbuses and conversion vans and a camping trailer, this will be perfect.

* * * * *

The itchy rash, while still present and ugly and itchy, seems to be slightly better. I will still see the dermatologist on Tuesday, but I am hopeful that our vacation will not be cursed with The Itch.

Sock projects,

I dug through my sock yarn stash to decide on sock projects to bring along on vacation.

(Photo taken after I had already plucked The Chosen Yarns.)

The first choice is some Mountain Colors Bearfoot, colorway Juniper, that I won in Lisa's snow melt contest last year. This yarn cried out to be knit concurrently with the Noro striped sweater for which you saw the yarn yesterday. Don't you agree that a pair of socks from this lovely stuff would be the perfect accessory for that sweater? Yes, I thought you would.

I wound it into a ball on Saturday, but decided I should swatch and throw the it into the laundry just to be sure it would stand up to my rather careless care of socks. (I don't refuse to hand wash socks.) If it proves to require more tender care than I can provide I'll save it for a lacy scarf, and instead bring along this, purchased here, which would also be great with that sweater and which I swatched and washed last year:

Both of those yarns are dark and thus suitable for daylight knitting. When the light is dim, say, in the car after dark when I am using my headlamp, these aging eyes prefer that I work with light-colored yarn.

Behold:

 

That is Opal Starken Zarkus, colorway 2006, bought somewhere in the past year. This yarn marks my efforts to purchase sock yarns that will produce socks whose colors blend in my wardrobe rather than scream COLOR! FUN! I love Opal yarn for socks; it feels like no nonsense, like it will last forever.

Just in case the Opal socks knit up so quickly that I need a second light-colored sock project, here we have Trekking XXL, colorway "Clown Barf" 156, purchased here and which color marks my inconsistent approach to the color theory mentioned above. Trekking has much the same feel to me as Opal. "This is sock yarn."

2009: That was the year that was.

January.

Well, there was this (bad).

And there was this (good) (from left, Wendy, me, Chris, and Susan).

On the knitting front:


 

February.

Good intentions.

 

Snow and cold.

Knitting:

March.

Winter melted away.

Knitting.

April.

Spring arrived in earnest.

Yarnover.

End of tax season.

Taste of St. Croix.
 

Knitting resumed after tax season.

 

May.

I scored big at Macy's sale racks, I helped Norm go away, I celebrated Mother's Day in an eco-friendly way, the bears and the ticks came out of hibernation, I picked up trash, I enjoyed the Memorial Day weekend, I bid farewell to our local librarian, and Hannibal discovered the joys of catnip.

Knitting was primarily of a stealth nature, but did include scientific swatching and the F'ing of a couple of O's that had been OTN for nearly, and over a year, respectively. (I am rather proud of that sentence -- and its punctuation -- awkward though it may be.)

 

June

June was for knitting and vacation and celebrating that brief magical time that is summer in the north woods.

 

 

Lots of knitting.

 

 

July.

July was for more vacation -- the rest of the one in Wyoming and another on the North Shore.

And summer.
 

And injuries.
 

And knitting.

 

August.

It was a very good month. I turned 60, had a contest, and laughed. We went to a concert.
 

I learned the difference between eagles and turkey vultures, and I had surgery to remove some extra/unneeded bits and pieces and repair that torn cartilage in my knee.
 

Knitknitknit.

 

September.

In September I had lots of cats on the blog, it was my turn to give the prayer at the beginning of the monthly county board meeting, the county budget process blew up, and the most gloriously gorgeous month of the year was here.

 

The knitting, she continued.

 

October.

I became a biker by proxy,

more new-to-me music found its way into my iTunes, and we celebrated 35 years together

by not-camping on Lake Superior.

The kneedles continued to fly.
 
 

November.

The van that took us on some wonderful vacations met up with an unfortunate bear on the road and was replaced by an older but bigger and more customized van.

Cold weather arrived, and once more I cooked and baked.

 

Mostly, though, I knitted.




Apparently I can crank out hats like other knitters crank out... sweaters

December.

I continued to be thankful (there is a lot to be thankful for).

With the help of Matthew and Maggie, I decorated for Christmas. This decorating thing is never a given.

I showed you my ornaments, y'all showed me yours.

 

We ate well.
 

A bit more knitting* for others.

I pretty much finished my Christmas knitting. (Shhh, the Calorimetry is a surprise.)


The medical mittens are still OTN -- stay tuned.

*For someone who doesn't like pink, I sure knit a lot of it lately...

Eye candy Friday.

Just in case you found my other Friday post a bit too disturbing, here is a deer we spotted as we were leaving the campground one evening when we were in Wyoming.

I was not even tempted to kill it.

Gaming.

 

One of the downers about getting a Mac was the stunning lack of free apps.

Solitaire? Nope.

Mah Jongg? Sorry.

The Cleaner (a little program I downloaded in the 90s that cleans up cut-and-pasted emails by eliminating extraneous line breaks and ">" at the beginning of quoted text)? Only for Windoze.

I did eventually find an inexpensive games for the Mac -- Kitty Spangles Solitaire has been my official play-while-on-hold game for a couple years. I have tried some free Mah Jongg games, both downloadable and online, but I didn't like any of them as well as the one I used to have for Windows.

And of course, now that I have complained that there are no free games for Mac I have discovered a bunch of online games that I can play. (And hope that there is no malicious code on the sites.)

But the biggest disappointment was that our version of Boggle didn't play on the Mac. We got the CD free in a box of cereal years ago. I have installed it on every PC and laptop we have had in that time, including the ones I had for work, plus copied and shared it with other people, and over the years Smokey and I have played it together for hours. Since 2006, however, when I went Mac, we have been limited to playing it on his laptop, mostly when we are on vacation.

Last week Crazy Aunt Purl mentioned online Boggle and the light bulb flashed above my head.

 

We have become addicted all over again.

* * * * *

Last Friday night we were playing online Boggle (yes, it's an exciting life here at Chez Kat™) when a message window popped up from Elder Son. Who informed us he had nearly been killed recently.

This is the same kid who emailed me from South Africa a few years back when he was studying there to say he had been held up at knife point and was feeling really bad that he had lost his cell phone and $60. I had to go lie down for a bit after reading that email.

Anyway, the most recent expiration of one his nine lives happened when the car in which he was a passenger made an inadvisable left turn and was T-boned on the passenger side by a big SUV. The car he was in was totaled because the entire side was caved in, but he suffered only a little scrape on his shin.

Kids. They make your heart sing and they make it fall through the floor.

* * * * *

This was the scene on the first morning of our most recent camping trip.

 

 

 

 

It was at this point that I got so excited to have coffee that I forgot all about the camera.

Knee update. North Shore.

First, let's get the medical details out of the way. Many people are bored by medical details; if you are one, just skip ahead to the part after the * * * * *. I find such details fascinating, even when they are not mine own.

Results of the MRI: yes, there is indeed a floater/foreign body in my knee. The nurse practitioner didn't say so, but I am assuming it is a bone chip caused by the second fall, the one directly onto my kneecap.

There is also a bit of torn cartilage. That's probably from the first fall, the face plant onto concrete in front of 100+ people.

And I have prepatellar bursitis, which the link calls "housemaid's knee." That would account for the swelling in the front of my knee and the numbness of that skin. Nurse said it might just be blood from the bruising, and if so, it will be reabsorbed by my body. If not, I may have to have an incision on the front of my knee to drain *it*, whatever *it* is.

In the meantime, I will have arthroscopic surgery to remove the floater and repair/remove the torn cartilage. The staff are working to schedule it the same day as when my ortho doc will remove the screws and bolt and plate from my ankle; that means just one 100-mile round trip and one anesthesia, yay. It will happen on Friday, August 28. Mark your calendars.

The nurse also had me get an ultrasound of that leg from the groin to the ankle to be sure I didn't have any blood clots. Results = no clots. Afterward I asked the tech what would have happened if there had been clots.

"Oh, usually they put you in the hospital and give you blood thinners."

Yikes. I hadn't realized that part could be so serious, although upon reflection I realize of course it is.

Oh, and I seem to have some infection in that knee and shin (the link above mentions that the bursa can get infected when injured). Hot packs and antibiotics are in progress.

::sigh::

All this because I couldn't keep track of my feet...

* * * * *

Now for the more interesting stuff.

The week after the fall we went camping again, this time on the North Shore (of Lake Superior). Weather was a bit damp and cool, but that really didn't bother us -- we tend to nap/read/eat/knit/snuggle dogs when camping. All that can be done in the camper if necessary.

We had dinner one night with Smokey's old boss, who is now retired and who has a cabin near Grand Marais. We ate at the Cascade Restaurant:

 

 

The views from our table by the window:

Even though the weather was not 100% cooperative while we were camping, I think I got some very nice photos, one or two perhaps worthy of entry at the fair next year.

 

Oh, and proof I was knitting:

This 'n' that.

To those of you who commented on how much I knitted while we were on vacation: when one is camping in a place where the only thing to do is hike, and one is not a hiker, knitting -- and napping and reading and occasionally going into town -- is pretty much all there is to do. So that is what I did, most happily.

* * * * *

I have had to drive Da Yeep (shown above in a photo from last December) for the last week (minus the plow) because Smokey is using my car to get to work while his van in the shop awaiting a brake job.

Da Yeep has a little electrical problem that drains the battery if it sits for more than 12 hours or so. More than once in the past week one of us has had to hook it up to the battery charger to get it going.  As a temporary fix until he has time to do a full trouble-shooting exploration, Smokey put in a battery disconnector. Whenever I park the car I have to raise the hood and turn a knob; when I want to use the car I must raise the hood and tighten that knob. It is inconvenient, but better than having a dead battery.

Why, yes, I have gotten some odd looks in parking lots...

Because it has been sitting outside all the time, Da Yeep has also become a bit of a spider mecca. I counted three spiders of various sizes on the inside of the windshield when I drove it today.

Luckily I am not particularly bothered by spiders as long as they keep their distance...

* * * * *

Bear, our senior dog, had surgery again this week. She had something in one paw that was making it increasingly difficult for her to walk. That something turned out to be a tumor that the vet thinks was cancerous. But she is an old dog, and we hope that any recurrence grows as slowly as she walks. The vet found a couple other tumors, too -- one on her tongue and one at her other end -- but those did not look problematic under the microscope.

I emailed Elder Son, who is very, very attached to Bear and he replied:

Hey, this may be a little weird, but could you ask him if he could email me the images?  If they're digital that is, not so easy to send if their microscope isn't hooked up to a computer.  I'm just curious to look at the cellular pathology and see if canine neoplasia looks like the human neoplasia I learned about in pathology... anatomy's so dull that a pathology slide will be absolutely fascinating by comparison.  I really liked pathology, and I'll probably TA for it next year.

* * * * *

I was just reading a 70-page pdf document that summarized the Wisconsin state budget bill that was signed into law a couple weeks ago. (Yes, it was fascinating, thanks for asking.) But besides all the normal budget stuff about money, I also read this:

The budget creates a process for declaring and registering domestic partnerships between two individuals who meet the following criteria: 1) they are at least 18 years old and capable of consenting to the domestic partnership; 2) neither individual is married to, or in a domestic partnership with, another individual; 3) the two individuals share a common residence; 4) the two individuals are not nearer of kin to each other than second cousins; and 5) the individuals are member of the same sex...

...[d]omestic partners will be considered a “member of the family” for purposes of victim notification; receive the same privilege from testifying against one another as husband and wives; be entitled to damages under wrongful death actions; receive Crime Victim Compensation Program funds; be able to title assets in joint tenancy; domestic partners will be subject to the same inheritance law provisions as spouses; have the same rights of access to individuals in care facilities as spouses; have the same rights of consent to medical treatment and access to medical records as spouses; have access to insurance provided by fraternal organizations; be exempt from the real estate transfer and manufactured home title transfer fees for transfers between partners; be entitled to worker’s compensation death benefits; receive the same coverage for Family and Medical Leave as spouses; be subject to the same procedures for transferring a motor vehicle title at the time of a partner’s death as for spouses.
 
The budget also allows domestic partners who are public employees to qualify for
Wisconsin Retirement System benefits, including health insurance and survivor benefits.

A couple years ago Wisconsin voters passed a constitutional amendment that banned same-sex marriages and civil unions:

Only a marriage between one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state. A legal status identical or substantially similar to that of marriage for unmarried individuals shall not be valid or recognized in this state.

There will certainly be court challenges to this budget provision, but for now I am happy, even though it is kinda sneaky to put something like this in a budget bill.

* * * * *

On Smokey's cousin's porch in Laramie, on our way home from vacation:

 

What did you knit on vacation, Kat™?

Did I knit much on vacation? Did I knit much on vacation? I knit so much that by the end I sometimes found myself riding in the car and not knitting! Apparently I had gotten my fill, not that that condition lasted very long. I resumed knitting as soon as I got home.

Let's recap, shall we? As planned, I took along:

1. The kimono sweater, which I planned to finish. Status: not finished, but not for lack of knitting. When we left I had knitted the first 6" of the two fronts. While we were gone I finished both fronts, attached them to the back with a 3-needle bind-off, picked up 270 st -- from the bottom right front up around the neck and down the left front -- and knitted 3" of garter stitch for the neckband. And I have woven in all the ends so far. That is where the sweater stands now. I didn't accomplish my entire goal, but I am much further than I was; it is still realistic to expect to wear it this winter.

This back:                                                added a couple fronts and a neckband:
                  

2. The corn socks, in hopes of having a completed pair sometime during the trip. Status: done, worn, washed, worn, washed, and ready for another wearing.

These:                                                       became these:
              

I need to seek out another shirt or two in golden tones so I have something beside one t-shirt to wear these with.

3. The Cascade 220 stash-breaker Faroese shawl, to be able to change up my knitting when I finished the kimono sweater. Status: the shawl looks remarkably similar to the picture taken before we left. I knit only another couple stripes because I was so intent on the kimono sweater.

This:                                                           grew very slightly, into this:
                

4. Sock yarn to start another pair of socks. I returned to my original plan and brought this blue Pagewood Farms Denali sock yarn instead of the brand-new BFL I won from Tammy right before we left. I really need some more blue socks; I have plenty of red ones because I love red, not that I won't love to knit this into socks and wear them.

This:                                                            instead of this:
                    

Blue sock #1 is now nearly done, just another inch or so on the leg to go.

4. In addition, I brought two balls of Karabella Margrite (80% extra-fine merino, 20% cashmere) to make a chemo cap for Smokey's co-worker.

107 yards of this:                                          was transformed into this:
                    

The color in the first photo is accurate. The cap is lovely soft and was delivered to her this week.

As you can see, I totally pwned that 4-row lace pattern this time. Yay, me!

5. I finished the narrow Clapotis.

Three balls of this:                                   had grown into this before we left.
                            

It subsequently grew into this:            which shall be worn sort of like this:
                    

The jacket is actually a dull olive, a bit darker than the green in the scarf, not the gray it appears to be in the photo. The colors work quite well together.

6. I threw 2 balls of Cascade Fixation in a mottled denim colorway into my knitting bags, too, just in case I felt like knitting another pair of warm weather socks when I finished the corn ones. Didn't happen. The yarn still looks like this:

6.  I did not bring along the half-done child's sweater for A4A. Reality smacked me upside the head. Given the projects above, I knew there was no way I was going to get to this one.

All in all, I am pleased with my progress. Wish it could have been more, but don't we always wish that?

Camping food.

Now that I have completely trashed Nebraska, let me tell you about how well we ate on our vacation.

I considered bringing my espresso machine along (shut up, I am SO a rugged camper) but decided that without a microwave to warm the milk, my latte would be [whining] too haaarrrd. So instead I opted for tea in the mornings.

The first morning:

That's an immersion heater plugged into the cigarette lighter of the van. Fine and good, but one cup of tea is not enough.

Day two:

 

That's better. I'm a four-shot-latte-in-the-morning girl; I need my caffeine.

Breakfast and lunch, if eaten at the campground, were often whatever either of us felt like scrounging up from the grub box -- my choice was usually cheese and crackers, Smokey's was canned corned beef (yuck!) on crackers with pickles. S ometimes we drove into Buffalo and ate at Tom's Diner on Main Street. Mmmmm. One day Tom's was closed and we went to Pistol Pete's out by the freeway; okay, more spacious and western, complete with stuffed heads on the walls, but the food was not as good as Tom's.

From what we could tell, Tom is the owner and fry cook and his wife is the waitress. There was also a guy in the dish room, didn't get his CV. The fun part -- beside the food -- was that every time I looked at Tom I saw Walter Sobchak from The Big Lebowski. Well, okay, Tom resembled Walter only in the vaguest way imaginable -- and as far as I could tell he wasn't armed -- but still. Going to Tom's Diner and watching Tom/Walter cook my breakfast was definitely a high point of my trip.

Something I have found only at a supermarket in Buffalo, WY are these:

Basque sausage (scroll down). Spicy and very tasty. We cooked them on the grill a couple times and brought these home to recreate the vacation experience. Mmmm redux.

Buffalo has a walk-up scoop shop on Main Street with about a gazillion flavors. Smokey had the black licorice; I had mint chocolate chip. It had the biggest hunks of chocolate I had even had in that flavor. Mmmm (x3).

Even if we didn't go to the scoop shop, we still managed to have our ice cream.

 

That's Ben & Jerry's Everything but the...™. Mmmm.

One night we grilled New York strip steaks purchased at a store in Buffalo, and I want to tell you: they were the best steaks either of us had had in a looonnng time.  They were tender and tasty and juicy but not greasy. Maybe that's because they were local, grass-fed beef? I don't know, but I'd sure like to have a few of those in the freezer.

Okay, now I am gonna make you laugh. Ever seen one of these?

 

That little toaster oven could run off our baby generator (set up at the end of a 125' extension cord so the noise didn't bother anyone) and allowed us to have these for breakfast a couple times:

 

Those are Pillsbury cinnamon rolls with cream cheese frosting. Pretty danged tasty in the morning, especially once I figured out how to use the toaster oven (duh).

And there you have it: how to go camping without really roughing it :-)

Fourth of July in the heartland.

Anyone who fears America has lost its spirit of blowing things up needs to hang out in Nebraska on the 4th of July as we did. 

Well, hang out might be overstating the case. Flying low perhaps.

Um.

To be perfectly frank, driving I-80 from Pine Bluffs, Wyoming, close by the Nebraska state line, to Lincoln, capital of the Big Red state. That's the leg I drove last Saturday night on our way home.

And "fireworks from one end of the state to the other" might be a bit of an exaggeration, too. How about, "from Ogallala to North Platte to Kearney"?

This may not be the entire length of the state, and it may not look very long on the map, but that bit from Ogallala to North Platte to Kearney? That's about 150 miles, folks, and I was never out of sight of a fireworks display the whole time. At one point as I was approaching North Platte I could see six (6!) separate and distinct pyrotechnic displays as I turned my head from left to right. From 8:45 pm until almost 11 there were fireworks somewhere on my horizon.

If you have to drive across Nebraska on the interstate -- a ribbon of concrete 420 miles long with six trees, no curves, and hills noticeable only if you are pulling a trailer -- do it on the evening of the 4th of July. It will be fun, I promise.

Oops, sorry, that's another exaggeration. Driving across Nebraska is NEVER fun; it's just something you have to do to get from anywhere in the eastern two-thirds of the country to the mountains. It's like death and taxes: unavoidable.

Tomorrow: what we ate on vacation. Hold onto your hats.

Animals.

Friday it rained. A rainy day during a camping vacation means just one thing: time to go into town. Smokey dropped me off at the library and went to do the laundry. (I love this guy.) When the laundry was done he joined me; we checked  email and I read blogs and generally had internet fun.

Dinner was at a gourmet feast at Taco John’s. While that was tasty (anything with as many fat grams as Taco John’s food HAS to be tasty.), it was not nearly as much fun as what we found when we drove around the building to leave. Right next door was an old farmstead with horses.

 

The white horses were big, not as big as Percherons or Belgians, but definitely larger than the others. The male has apparently been bugging the females in the herd; whenever he started toward any of them they ran away. “Dammit, can’t you think of anything else, you big brute?!”

And here is Lucy, watching them.

This was definitely the high point of her day.

After dinner we drove back to the campground, but realized before we got there that this was the time of day when the wildlife comes out. The sky had cleared, so we continued up the mountain and drove through several other national forest areas. It was indeed the perfect time of day, both for the lighting conditions, and when those got too dark for really good photographs, for animals.

 

There were animal sounds emanating from the pine forest in the background. It sounded like seals barking, but we agreed that it was probably moose talk.

 

At one point we were turning around -- I can see why a person living in this area might want to have a four-wheel-drive vehicle with high ground clearance; some of these forest roads get mighty rutted and rocky -- we looked out the windshield as the van was completely crosswise in the road, and guess what we saw?

Lucy missed that one.

We even saw The Majestic Moose.

 

What, you can't see him? How about now?

 

Cursingmama, this one's for you :-)

Mile-high posting.

Here we are in Wyoming; Buffalo, where I am wi-fi-ing in the library, is at a bit less than 5,000 feet elevation, and the campground where we are living is at something like 6,000 feet. So, on average, I am a mile high. No comments from the peanut gallery, please.

We had a bit of a late departure from home -- 24+ hours late, to be truthful. Car trouble, Smokey not feeling well enough to fix it, our eternal optimism about how long it would take to pack. But our good buddy Lennie came to the rescue and did all the tire mounting and oil changing and other stuff that needed to be done before we set out on this adventure.

A couple little giggles from Lennie's shop:

Twenty hours after we left the lake -- and one dead deer* later -- we pulled into the Middle Fork Creek campground.

 

That's Middle Fork creek viewed from my knitting chair.

 

Note the handy cup of tea and iPod. I'm on my second audio book already and have finished a pair of socks and the skinny cotton Clapotis.

 

No photo of the Clap until I get home and block it.

I am half done with another chemo hat, this one for one of Smokey's co-workers. This hat is from the same lace-edged hat pattern that I, er, *modified* for my friend Mary. Raydean's hat, however, looks exactly like the pattern photo. Yay, me! I can conquer a four-row lace pattern that has two plain knit rows! Photo of that one will be forthcoming after I get home and block the lace edging. I am feeling quite triumphant.

This is a dog that has just seen a squirrel/other dog/leaf twitch:

 

She practically went nuts when this pretty girl crossed the campground (sorry for the blurry photo; the subject is in the middle of the creek, crossing from right to left):

* Smokey hit a deer twenty miles from home.

The bumper is sad but the car was still drivable. He plans to putz with it while we are here and make it prettier.