Cool Animals on my Property

                                                  Cool Animals on my Property

On my property that is located in the back country we see a lot of animals. One of the reasons that it was appealing to me is that it is not too far away from the city, but there is ample wildlife. Another nice thing is that the property is across from the Jack Links Ranch, which means that it is pretty much undisturbed woods. I think that they use it for hunting and fishing so that it is almost like being a preserve. 

I set up a bunch of night vision cameras and some feed to see what different types of animals would come out and visit. We got the cameras from Bass Pro Shop and we were getting feed from Tractor Supply Shop. We set up two cameras on the property and then would set out some feed. The deer would come in and then you get an alert on you phone and the pictures start pouring in. 

A part of me was tracking the deer and animals because I would like to go hunting and its always good to know what is on your property. However, since I am just about ready for hunting, hunting with the camera was almost as good. 

Here are some of the pictures of the deer that we saw. Below is a group of does. We noticed that the does were not with the bucks as often as you would think. 

A Buck who goes super close to the camera, or maybe it is a buck that lost its horns. They shed them once a year.

One of those rare photos where you see a buck, a yearling and a doe. The camera had 58 pictures loaded from this feeding. Then it sends them to me and I picked the ones I like best. I always like the pictures where you can see the buck. It is also really cool when you see the same buck every couple of nights. You get to know them and give them nicknames. 

What a great photo. There are two bucks. I believe one only has 1 horn, a cute little guy. But check out the handsome 6 point. I would love to one day have a nice open plot of land with plenty of foraging grass for the deer to grow big and get fat on, There is also a pretty doe. Do you wonder if they hear the camera snapping the pictures?

What an incredibly handsome buck! I love this picture. Male deer really are majestic creatures. This buck is about 3 years old. A deer starts off the first year as a 2 point. The next year they generally get 2 more and so one. Deer will get to have 10 points or 5 to 6 years old. 

Here is an example of what I was talking about with the deer. You have a buck that is probably 4 years old. This one you could see would be a 8 point at least. However he lost one of his antlers early in the year. Maybe he was fighting with another male or maybe he lost it when he was rubbing his antlers against a tree. However he got a nickname from me and that was UNICORN, The buck with one horn. At least you know next year he will get a bigger more beautiful rack, and the fact that he lost one of the horns make it less likely that he will get shot during hunting season.

Wow what a cool buck on the property. This ghostly fellow must have come on a foggy night. HIs rack is asymmetrical which means not as sought after. He is a 7 or an 8 point. Sometimes deer will develop an extra point or nub on their rack. Some hunters like these while others do not. It is a point that is really up to the aesthetics of the hunter. Older deer who are beyond 6 will have very interesting and gnarled racks also when a deer does not have proper nutrition they may not be able to grow their rack to its full potential. This is why some feed will include minerals to help the bucks grow their racks. Think about deer antlers like toenails! Tiki-toenails.

Here is a magnificent buck who was visiting first thing in the morning. Deer are nocturnal, but I have often seen them at dawn and dusk. Some animals are called Diurnal this means that they are primarily active in the day and at dusk. As you can see from the muddy cam, the deer are mostly out a night but this is one of the rare morning photos that the camera snapped of them.

Another day photo here the deer are foraging on grass. This is a muddy cam photo of two doe on the edge of my property. 

We also have a neighbor who has a hog stand. You can shoot hogs at any time in Florida as they are pests and they tear up your lawn and your property. We once dug a post hole and came back after a week and a baby piglet had fallen into the post hole and couldn’t get out and stunk up the property really bad. The neighbor is a butcher and so we have also gotten beef jerky, deer pepperoni, and various other cuts of meat from him, which is awesome. He has a trailer set up to bleed, butcher, and dress the animals.  

We often see hog tracks and sometimes see weird bird tracks  out by the farm. And we have gotten video of the hogs too. Here are some pictures of the turkeys and hogs.

Can you believe the amount of hogs there are. You can see at least three big ones. A couple of medium ones and some piglets. When these guys come and root up your yard they cause massive yard destruction.

What are these long legged beasts? Why, they are turkeys of course. Turkeys roost in trees. They can fly up into the trees and yet they also seem to graze. I wonder what they find so delicious to eat on the property. Oh I know, I laid some grass seed down. I bet they are eating all my seeds! Argh! Those turkeys will get you every time. By the way, turkeys are very hard to shoot.

Here is another turkey shot. This one is pretty cool because it is so close to the camera. Turkeys and chickens are such interesting creatures because the males are so interesting looking. They have really regal feathers. Here I left some of the information from the Muddy Cam, notice it has the moon, temperature, date,  and time. These are all useful features if you are going to try to hunt or if you want to log different animals and feeds. It is pretty awesome. The top of the camera has a lot of information but mostly related to electronics.

Here is a deer that is crossing the street in the nearby town that I live in. Is it hunting season yet? lol

Sean Borca - palm coast, Florida | about.me

Wild Florida Hogs on Our Property

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/xAbtNgD2gvA

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Vegas Vacation at the Start of COVID 2020

 Vegas Vacation at the Start of COVID 2020

Day 1 (Friday early flight)  -learning to play blackjack - cheap flights 50 bucks - suits and dress up for fun - airplane ride- sick - In and Out - Cosmopolitan Comped Room - Meet Buddy - Steak Dinner -- Slot Machines

The first trip I took with my future wife was taking her to Las Vegas. We met in the Spring of 2020 and by August I had decided with the urging of a friend to go to Vegas. Vegas was still sort of closed due to the shutdown, however it was open enough that you could go super cheap and play/gamble with plastic glass around u haha. My/friend who frequents Vegas a lot had room comps that were going to expire unless they were used. The room comp was for a wrap-around balcony suite at the Cosmopolitan, which is baller. The only hotel really on the strip with a balcony and it's a big one, a double wrap around suite. For the room comp, you needed to spend a certain amount of money at the resort so anything I spent we would put under George’s name so he could make his room comp quotas. Vegas is a strange place and has a lot of things like that for people who are spending their hard earned money and usually literally losing it to the casinos. All the casinos are big, bright and glittery. They all have as much alcohol you want to drink (as long as you are gambling) so that you will spend more of your money on the slots, or at the tables especially with no clocks and cold a/c and special cigarette vents.  The flights were super cheap, I found them for 50 dollars each both ways and only spent 200 on airfare on a nonstop flight from Orlando and our room was comped. I felt like I could take my babe and have a fun weekend and maybe gamble a lil for fun. I'm not legalistic so to me its like playing the stock market and it's not like I'm lusting after money or doing it often. It was just a certain amount of entertainment that I budgeted to loose. Not only that but the Cosmopolitan was opposite the Bellagio and on the Vegas strip so we should have a view of the famous fountains as well as the neon signage going down the streets.

My honeybear worked until 11 and then met me at my house at 12, we had a 2PM flight and as she didn’t want to take a lot of time off work, time was of the essence. She loaded her bags into my date night truck (as I like to call it) and we got into the vehicle. We had decided to dress the part and I had bought a new suit jacket and she was in a short dress. I had always wanted to go to Vegas and jump in a pool with a full suit on. There is a movie out there about this. I didn’t do it this time, but there is always next time. However, if I go to Vegas again it will be for all the shows. 

I had a deck of cards and I was going to teach Phoebe how to play Blackjack Vegas style. I told her we could sit at the 10 dollar tables and play some games. I would give her a stack of 200 and she could play it at the table as long as she followed my rules!. Lol. Once the chips were gone, they were gone. Then we could do something else. I was driving and pretending I was the dealer and she was playing cards and telling me if she should hit or stay. I practiced with her all the way to the airport and she was starting to get the hang of it. I have to say that I am a pretty good teacher. Pride before the fall.

We were really rushing and cutting time close, as a domestic flight on a Friday we got there an hour before. Spirit flights are brutal because they nickel and dime you for everything. We had to pay extra for an extra bag and Phoebe, my girlfriend at the time, was struggling with the mask. She preferred wearing shields as she has asthma and the mask was making it hard for her to breath. She would take the mask and stick her finger under to give her some space to breathe. She is more of a rule follower than me. When we got onto the Spirit flight we were excited because we were right up at the front, literally row 1, but we were so crammed into the wall that there was NO legroom. Literally 2 feet in front of our face. Not only that but we were in the stewards' sights so the moment they saw us taking some relief from the masks they were on us and threatening us. They literally told me if I took my mask off one more time (just to drink) that they would put me on the NO FLY list for Spirit. So since I am not public enemy number one I kept my mask on. My honey read and tried to sleep, and she was still struggling with breathing. I tried to help her by giving her water, but by the time we were off the flight she had motion sickness. She was feeling terrible. And so did I because of that darn wall.

It was about 4 in the afternoon when we arrived, it was a 3 hour straight shot flight and we gained a couple of hours by traveling into a different time zone. I was super excited and gathered the bags for us. She was wretched and complaining. We went outside and it was August and summer it was about 100 degrees. Phoebe had thought the heat wouldn’t be worse than Florida since we have humidity and they don’t. She was wrong though. Vegas summer sun and heat is intense and unbearable. Some days it was almost 110! We hopped into the cab and she leaned her head against the window. I began to instruct the Uber Driver to take us to the famous In-N-Out Burger. 

An aside about In-N-Out, there are none on the East Coast. So what does one do? They get all their In-N-Out when they go to the West Coast! We made, I think, 3 separate trips to the burger joint and each one, in my humble opinion, was delicious. I get the Animal Style Double Double and I ordered something for Phoebe. She was still very ill and when she ate (because she was sick) she said it didn’t live up to the hype. 

Well darling, I hate to tell you that is the way hype is, when you hype something up too much it's never as good as you imagine it could be. But I bet if we asked her right now if she would like an In-N-Out burger she would say yes and she would want one animal style!!. That is the one with grilled onions! And the secret sauce, It’s an amazing flavor that I crave. Any of my friends when they travel to California or somewhere with an In-N-Out, they send bragging pictures of their meal. I was truly disappointed when my babe didn’t like it, but we can blame the mask-intense flight for that. She was nauseous and no matter how good food is, when you are nauseous nothing tastes great.

(Back of the cab photo I was so excited to brag to friends.) Well even if she didn’t I felt great and so I comforted my honey and happily directed the Uber Driver to take us to the Cosmopolitan. He was telling us some interesting facts about Vegas in the summer. One of the weird facts that he shared was that the streets in Vegas stink because of the way the sewers are made. We didn’t notice any stench but we believe what the Uber driver told us. When we drove up to the Cosmopolitan we realized what a beautiful building and hotel we were in. It was really a treat for the eyes. We went to the parking area where cabs were dropping people off and were let out. Tipping the driver, I grabbed my hun’s hand and said, “I can’t believe it's this nice!” Not only the building was impeccable and looked brand-new with glowing neon signs and decadent modern ambience, but the people seemed well dressed and sophisticated, if a few of them seemed a little sloshy it didn’t detract from the ambience by rather seemed to scream, “WELCOME TO VEGAS!”

Seriously, it was way nicer than I ever expected it to be.  We were going to meet George who comped us the room and I texted him to let him know that we were there. He came downstairs and we all went to the front desk. The lobby was done as if it were a library with tall pillars of fake bookshelves and periodically the decor shifted when the lights changed. George got us the room key and we all went up to the room. The room was nothing short of amazing, a little rich for our blood, but it was great. It was like a two bedroom apartment. WHAT! Really a whole apartment, not even a room. It had a kitchen, a bathroom, a separate bedroom, a living room, a place to eat, and a double wrap-around balcony. Not only that but we were half way up the building and we could see the Bellagio fountain from our room. This fountain went off it seemed every couple of hours and was pretty impressive with all the different patterns. 

We toured the Cosmopolitan and we tried a few games. Phoebe wasn’t feeling so great about playing the slots, but she pressed the button. She wanted levers she said. Where were the 5 cent slot machines? She asked me. The games or slots are very short and quick and she lost interest as she isn’t really a gambling type. We decided that we would celebrate our arrival to our destination and try some great food and planned to leave after George got his fill.  After looking at a few of the electronic slot games we headed to STK for a fancy pants diner in our Vegas finery. The food was mouth wateringly delicious and George, my friend who loves croutons, had a whole bowl! Admittedly, they might have been the best croutons I ever had in my life, but still a whole bowl of them?. I took a moment to spin my lady around the restaurant and danced a few steps with her in the Cosmo as we started calling it.

We ordered saliva inducing steaks and the food was what you would expect from one of the top 10 steakhouses in the country. I don’t really know if this is true, but George kept telling us this. After eating there, I would say it probably is one of the best in the country. And after doing a search I found that there is one in Orlando and so I may go there one day again. After dinner, George wanted to play in the Cosmopolitan and Phoebe was still not feeling the greatest. She was stuffed and she said she was super tired. She told us to go play since it was getting late and so me and George went and caught up at the Cosmopolitan and my babe went to take a nap.

Day 2 (Saturday) - Egg$lvt --  French Crepes for Lunch -- Canal Boat trip with singer -- Day tour of all the Casinos, Bellagio  -- Shopping macaroons -- Gambling and  much at old casino getting kicked out -- Secret Pizza

We woke up and admired the view, having a coffee out the balcony. My honey was excited about the high tech system they had installed in the refrigerator. If you picked a drink up from the spot your room would charge you, because the refrigerator and certain spots on the counter were weighted. This is real Indiana Jones Fort Knox type room charging they have. After staring at the giant poster of Britthey and the Vegas strip we decided we would try the hilariously named Egg$lvt for breakfast. George was nowhere to be found and we made plans to meet up with him later that night through text. We had some sort of runny egg sandwich and my babe felt better.

After Egg$lvt , I decided I would take my love to do a tour of the strip. We started across the street at the Bellagio. They had a huge Asian exhibit and Hello Kitty was everywhere. My honey’s besties love Hello Kitty so she was taking selfies with the giant floral beast and I photobombed her. We took some pictures to send to friends and family. Each hotel has a gimmick to draw in visitors. Bellagio has gardens and the fountain, Cosmopolitan has a ton of restaurants, MGM is movie themed, New York New York looks like a mini city on the outside and has a mini statue of liberty and rollercoaster, Paris has a mini eiffel tower and a shopping mall and the venetian had indoor canals. Phoebe let me know that one of her friend’s got proposed to at the top of the Eiffel Tower in Vegas and then asked if we could go up. Just walking down the street or New Vegas Strip there is a myriad of cool architecture, places to visit, unique themes, great food. I wasn’t going to take my honey to the top of the tower just yet, I didn’t want to disappoint her as I didn’t have a ring. After the Bellagio, we got a couple 25 dollar chips from there for a keepsake. I was planning on giving them to the boys. I grabbed Phoebe and took her into the Paris

Paris in Vegas is the one that has the giant hot air balloon in neon and the mini eiffel tower. At the Venetian, you can go inside and ride the canals. They have singers singing Opera and serenading you as you get boated around.  The singer stands at the side of the canal and sings “Oh solo mia” in their best operatic voices. Every song or two they switch and people cheer as they float by. After the boat ride, I always remember to do something cheesy and silly for her, so I said let’s shop on Le Boulevard. We bought some french Macaroons and some other little treats and delicacies. I could tell she felt good with her little gift bags and paper shopbags as we walked and shopped. Normally, I try to be healthy, but I took my honey to a little cafe inside and we ordered chocolate and nutella crepes and a coffee. She was grinning most of the time ear to ear. Afterwards we walked down to the MGM Grand to see the big lion, we walked by New York New York, in the sweltering heat. This hotel has a rollercoaster. Snapped a picture of us by the mini statue of liberty and then we went inside the Excalibur. So we toured at least 6 of the casinos and then I was ready for some animal style!

We made another stop at In-N-Out and this time my girlfriend enjoyed it a lot more. We ordered the double-double again animal style. For a bargain and fast food it really is quick and yummy. Tonight was the night we were going to play some tables. We were going to hit up the Palms Casino. Vegas is getting too techy and too electronic and also too in favor of the house. The dealers now in places like Bellagio and Cosmo have at least 8 decks of electronic shufflers that are under the table. There are 8 decks so you can’t count, (which you shouldn’t do) plus they purposefully program the shoot based on the people sitting at the table, so the dealers get 20 or better a lot.  I have suspicions that the decks are controlled by Big Brother and so I prefer to find hand-shuffled tables. There are only a few places that do this and one of them is the Palms in order to lure players there since it's off the strip.

It was a night to hit tables like I said. Me and George and my honey would sit at a table and play Blackjack together. I wanted to sit at a table and play for a while. I didn’t want to win or lose, I just wanted to find a table to sit in and really have some fun playing with her. I wanted the chip stacks to go up and to go down. I am not a major gambler, not a poker player (although I have played) I am not the type to sit at a high stakes table, but I did want to play a bit with her. She was so nervous playing with the money it was a thrill.

When you got to the Palms, it’s an older casino with a couple hand-shuffled tables, you had to wear masks and they had temperature camera set ups at all the entrances. Vegas is pretty high tech so it took your temperature and video as you walked in. Security could look at monitors and the number of your temperature above your head. Phoebe peeked at the camera as people were walking in. People with good temperatures were green numbered. No one that came in had a fever. Also because of COVID restrictions there was no buffets, which Vegas used to be famous for, and the tables had only 3 people per table with big plastic sheets between everyone.

We played at the Palms for a while and then went to another Casino across the street. This one George managed to get us kicked out, not for drinking, not for obnoxiousness, but because apparently George was bending the corner slightly of the cards that he held in his hand. They asked him twice to not bend the cards. He said he didn't, they said he did, so then we got kicked out. Even if he was bending the cards, it wasn’t like he was winning. Oh well. On the side of the road we waited for an Uber to come and get us and my honey said, “That was the first place I have ever been kicked out of in my life.”

After another Casino, and my honey getting mad at me because she wanted to look around and play a lot of different games and I just wanted to tenaciously stick it out at one table win or lose,  we headed back. We were in Vegas, we weren’t up or down a lot of money, but we were feeling giddy. The Uber driver told us that there was a secret place that had great pizza that was in the Cosmopolitan. We were like, “what, great secret pizza?” And he said, yes its some of the best pizza he ever had and its secret, like only the locals only really know about it. And we were like really, only the locals… And the Uber driver responded, yes, its on the second floor of the cosmopolitan and its down a long hallway, around a corner, and tucked away. It’s only a window but if you can find it, you won’t regret it. 

So we excited went into the Cosmo, giggling and running like crazy trying to find the secret pizza that only locals knew about. We ran up to a security guard giggling and asked wheres the secret pizza, and he said upstairs, and then we asked him the name of it and he laughed and said its called secret pizza!!!!!. Haha. We went upstairs and then ran down this hallway, we turned a corner and found a long line to a hallway that looked like a bathroom hallway entrance. There was a huge line at like 1am. It was the  “Secret Pizza.” line. The pizza literally wasn’t a secret at all! But it was really awesome and we took a whole giant pie up to our room to gnosh on.

-Notice the Masked Statue of Liberty. Haha lol-

Day 3 (Sunday) - Cosmopolitan Room Service -- Pool on the roof -- In-N-Out Burger -- Old Vegas Trip Freemont Street and Golden Nugget --

Something that is fun to do, and everyone should try when they have a balcony comped room is to try room service. My honeybear loves fruit and I wanted to show her a good time so I ordered a breakfast smorgasbord that would please a king, and therefore MIGHT please a girlfriend. She was wide eyed and so was I. A big beautiful plate and a big fruitbowl, eggs, toast, bacon and ham and an assortment of jellies and coffee was laid on a stainless steel trolley with a white table cloth. What a brilliant way to start the day. It was as if it came right from the silver screen complete with a flower carnation. We took the trolley to the balcony and we sat outside on the wraparound and talked about some plans that we might do that day. It was a good day to enjoy some of the amenities there was a rooftop pool and a gym. We should go enjoy the amenities, something I always like to do. My honey was still saying that she wanted to pull a level on a 5 cent slot machine like they had in the movies. I wasn’t sure where we could find these 5 cent slot machines, but I suggested we go to Old Town or Old Vegas and find an old school casino like the Golden Nugget. She loved that idea and we had heard while walking around there was nothing quite like Freemont Street for weird things to see. We lounged and enjoyed the room for a while before going to meet George for lunch at the pool.

The Cosmopolitan has a couple of rooftop pools, it’s quite large and as it is a rooftop pool it has an excellent view. Well it's not completely rooftop, it’s about 10 stories up. We snapped pictures and looked over the edge. We ate and enjoyed the pool. There were a lot of people in the sweltering heat of the Vegas summer sun in the pool. A lot of interaction too. George, who originally hails from Canada, would occasionally scream “CANADA” at the top of his lungs, where other partiers, vacationers, gamblers and pool goers would scream back Wooooohooo. My lady just grinned,  and followed me around in the pool. We soaked in the pool, then dried in the sun, then back and forth, until we worked up an appetite for dinner.

We were going to Fremont for our last night and so we dressed to the nines. I did buy a suit jacket after all. My lady wore a red dress and I wore my blue suit jacket and we took an Uber to Fremont. They dropped us off at the end of the street. It’s hard to describe what Fremont is like, but it really isn’t like anywhere else I have ever been on Earth before. I thought there were a lot of neon lights on the New Las Vegas strip. I was wrong. Fremont takes it to a new level of neon. They have a GIANT LED screen that goes over the entire street. When you start at the end. Instantly your senses are dazzled with all the colors and the electronic music blasting. 

There were also scam contests. For 20 bucks I participated in a pull up contest hanging on a bar on the side of the street. I won. They told me to come back at the end of the night to collect my prize money, but guess what when we came back they said they pay at the end of the night. haha.

We went into the Golden Nugget but I wasn’t really in the mood to do any cards or anything so it was just a quick look and then back to Fremont to check out different booths. We Ubered home pretty late and watched the Bellagio fountains one last time.

Old Vegas - Fremont Street

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfjUNCeUu9U&list=PLyQInkjHDi3eEJPm2xvXW1dvULYylYar9

Day 4 (Monday Red Eye Flight)

This was just a short weekend trip, leave Friday and come back Monday. It was one of those get up before the crack of dawn while it is still pitch black and you want to be in the bed. The kind of morning where it isn’t really morning, it is still night and you have to will your body to painfully get up. Most people I think are probably like me, and they pack the morning of. So before you have some coffee sludge to get your blood going you have to make sure you have stuffed your bag with everything and make sure all lids to toothpaste, shampoo, mini Heinz ketchups that you are taking back or tabasco sauces (I have done both) and get it all stuffed in without leaving anything behind. Also making sure chargers, reading materials, jackets and everything else is where it needs to be. We had everything stuffed! I look around and my girlfriend is like a robot getting reading and then like a panicked grade schooler as it gets closer to the time to leave. “We have everything? Did you check under the tables and bed?” Then she invariably finds a stray earring or make-up bottle somewhere and then asks it all over again. 

“We have everything!” I assure her and then start to push her out the door so we can catch the Uber to the airport. An early morning flight, plus the extra time added going East will make it so that we can’t really make it to work that day. One day and a half off my sweetie took off from work for a weekend trip, that is not that bad right.

Two Top Snowmobiling trip in Montana

Two Top Mountain -Montana Snowmobiling Trip 2020

Day 1 Breakdown

Day 1 - Travelling

We decided that we would do a trip to Montana to go snowmobiling and do a mix of fun things from there. We booked tickets on skiplagged and got the cheapest flights we could get. This trip was going to be a combined family trip where we had 3 boys coming with us. We had 5 people on this trip and when we got on the plane since we had a larger family group we were all over the plane not sitting together. We took turns being the person who sat all by themselves. Our first stop was New York as a layover. It was my first layover in New York and you could see the Statue of Liberty from the plane. In the airport, we had a 4 hour layover, we had tried to carry all our luggage and we were eating New York pizza and found a place to lounge and charge our phones.The Trump election loss sentiment was lingering and still a hot topic in the airport and around the security. We also got mask scolding numerous times, me more then the rest of the family because I hated the darn thing and thought it was silly. We found a super cool light display that we sat under. All of the boys were tired from sitting and then sitting more. We had all worn a lot of our winter gear, because we were from Florida so our jackets and stuff was strewn everywhere. We finally got on the second plane. This time I was sitting by myself and I got to admire an interesting astronomical phenomenon, where the moon, Venus and Mars were super close together and lined up.The heavens really declare the Glory of God. The planets were beautiful the day we left, shining brightly so close together a beautiful spectacle. 

We got into Montana and it was beautiful. The mountains were huge and it was an amazing display of creation. We got ourselves a rental car and then drove to Livingston where we would base our stay. On the way to Livingston we admired the scenery. All the mountains were covered in snow and we were located in a valley. Montana’s roads were pretty cool as well. They had great big highways and you could drive 80 for the speed limit, which is a lot higher than Florida. Here, even though everybody drives crazy, the highest speed limit I have seen is 70.   

Something that I notice as a Floridian that traveled to someplace COLD is that people who  have cold weather and are from there, is that they use way too much heat! It might be something like Floridians who use way too much AC in the summer, Montantonians use way too much heat in the winter. The hotel, the cars, the ski lodges… every place we went was super hot and dry inside and outside, it was very crisp and cold. 

We rented two hotel rooms. We had our 8 year old with the 18 and 19 year olds upstairs from us. Part of the deal of the trip was they got to come along but would have to do hotel room babysitting.We left the boys and told them to go to sleep and then went and listened to the wind howling outside our room. It was hard to sleep that night, the wind howled so much and no matter how much you want to howl at the wind it just won’t stop blowing. We stayed at Fairfield Inn and Suites. We had to have multiple rooms, needed a pool and hottub, as well as a place that would help the pocket book by having breakfast. This had all these options and it was central to different ski hills, yellowstone and Boseman. Since we did this trip in the winter of 2020 we didn’t have many options for skiing and eating since a lot of places were cutting down the number of their guests to like 40% capacity. Because of this we were not able to go skiing at BigSky and instead we went to Red Mountain. Our basic itinerary for the trip was to do a day of skiing, a day of snowmobiling, a day in Yellowstone, a day exploring museums and hotsprings. After we grabbed something from fast food we told everyone to hit the hay, because our first day would be snowmobiling at Two Top Mountain in Yellowstone Park. 

One side note, because of COVID the pool had to be booked and only 1 family could use it at a time. This was not that cool because one of the reasons we paid a little extra for this hotel was because of the pool and hot tub and now we found out that we couldn’t even use it at our leisure, because of the silly COVID restrictions.

Day 2

Car Breakdown/Uber -- Rentals -- Snowmobiling -- Lunch -- Snowmobiling -- Hotel -- Ted’s in Montana

We awoke first thing in the morning about 430AM and scrambled to get ready. We had to travel from Livingston to Two Top Mountain, our goal was to be in the car by 5AM. Since we were in two rooms and on different floors and we had an 8 year old upstairs it was insane but doable. We got up, went upstairs, made sure all the boys were getting ready, and went back downstairs. They were fighting over socks, the bathroom, clothes and looking for their gear. Waking them up and getting them ready wasn’t easy and in one night their room looked like a whirlwind had hit it. Mind you, we did eat in their room. We also had to make sure that we had coffee and were trying to have Mr.Coffee brew as we got ourselves ready. When we finally wrangled them all going up and down in the elevator many times and herded the boys to the cars, we were already wondering what kind of day it would be.

We stepped outside into the pitch black of the freezing Montana morning. You realized just how cold and dark it was, no moon, and it was snowing. The car had been warming up for a few minutes and we sprinted without slipping on ice and got into the car. It was snowing lightly and snowflakes were blowing around. It was the frigid air blowing that killed your ears and we were all decked out in hats and gloves and probably more paraphernalia than we needed but as we were from Florida, you know we had long johns on under our clothes. The trip should take us about 2 hours and 10 minutes to get to Two Tops Snowmobile rentals. It ended up taking much longer. 

This part I will gloss over, because it is a little embarrassing. Driving too fast on an icy road, during a snowstorm in the dark led us to go off the road and get the car stuck. Rather than wait for a tow, we called an uber and ubered to Two Tops, we had no choice since it was completely booked and we HAD to be there to get a day of snowmobiling. Otherwise there was no rescheduling. The uberbill in Montana was excruciating. All the kids and my girlfriend, at the time, now wife gave me a hard time about it and I think I have finally lived it down. We arrived later than we should have and the Uber was super expensive. But there was only one day that there was any availability for snowmobiling so we had to make it there on time. A big luxury vehicle that fit all 5 of us passengers, I sat in the back, but enjoyed some conversation learning about Montana. When we arrived at the snowmobile place the uber driver dropped everyone off with me. My wifey went to McDonalds with the driver and spent about 50 dollars on McDonald's food so that we wouldn’t be hungry. Inside the snowmobile place, we were putting on stinky helmets and we all got given a snowsuit and gear. It was complete chaos. The three boys were all getting helped in different places, we were getting helped and trying on gear and trying to stuff our faces with McDonalds breakfasts. Gear wasn’t included but it was worth it. Once we were geared up the tour guides went over the rules with us and quick instructions on how to run the snowmobiles. Also they gave us some tips on places we could go, maybe stop to swim. We were doing a self guided tour, because we wanted to be able to go at our own speed, whatever that speed would be. They told us not to drive on the main highway, but the snowmobiles were allowed on all the other roads. They also warned us to stay away from certain areas that day because of rapidly changing weather and fog.

The older boys and I got snowmobiles with the biggest engines, 900cc Ski-Doos and my wifey got a 600cc. They all had hand warmers and warming seats. The warm handlebars and seats were super nice on the derrieres and much needed as it was way too cold with the wind.

We set out in a row, me, the two boys and wifey to be, each on a snowmobile of our own and my wifey and her son on a snowmobile together. We took awhile to get to the trails. We had to maneuver around a couple of streets and then we went across a big football field sized area that was lined with trees. I was euphoric but as we were still close to the city of West Yellowstone we kept our speed to slow. 

The trail system of Two Tops has a dozen different trails that are 20 to 30 miles long that stop at hot springs, the trails go beside canyons and also goes through Yellowstone as well as the tri- state area, which includes Idaho. Me and the two older boys enjoyed ripping through the back trails. We would go until a junction or we would go until we felt we needed to stop and then wait for my wife to come in tow with Lo. She was happily and very slowly trudging along with her 8yo. He was miserable. He hated being on the snowmobile. He hated the helmet which was too big for his head. He said he was cold though he was suited up to the extreme. He would let his head bobble while he rode and apart from the first few hours of the day he hated it. In retrospect younger kids sometimes have a hard time with snowmobiling. Me, John and Brett would patiently wait after we had zoomed through a trail. We started making a couple of stops,  and made snow angels. 

One time we got off the trail system, which I committed to memory and we went up and down a huge hill. It was fun and euphoric. Phoebe filmed us as we rode on this trail. We got back and then got into a line again and found one of the mail trails. Now we were zooming on a more crowded trail. Once or twice we had to stop to pull someone out of the ditch or dig out a snowmobile that had gone off track and was next to a tree. In most cases everyone was safe that got stuck in a ditch and we were able to pull out the snowmobiles and people that were in trouble on the trails. 

One memory is particularly glaring and crystal clear to me. When at the snowmobile station we were warned at the snowmobiling place to not go to the top of Two Tops Mountain, because the visibility was bad. On the trails and especially at the mountain the weather changes very fast. While we took the warning seriously, somehow we ended up there anyway by accident. The fog was thick, it felt like you were inside a cloud. It was hard to see the snowmobile in front of you. We were going pretty cautiously through this as we didn’t want to lose any family members in the fog. However, we ended up at the top with thick fog and we were snowmobiling next to a ridge cap. I stopped and warned everyone to be careful and we quickly finished the area. What a thrill to be on the snowmobile with blankets of snow on the ground, huge white pine trees on the top of Two Tops. Leading my family through the wilderness of Yellowstone. We followed some more trails in the middle of the park. The trails got close to a little town, so we decided to stop at a Mom and Pops for lunch.  The town was very woods-chalet type of architecture, there were a lot of very steep roofs, log cabins and wooden houses. Antique snowshoes and ski sets decorated some of the chalets and they were quite nice. The town had many trails in it, and many snowmobilers were visible on the side of the roads. There were more people on snowmobiles than there were cars out and about.

Eating lunch was probably the most fun for Lo, who decided he would have spaghetti and meatballs. We peeled off our snow suits so they were half on and half off and decided that we would all have hot chocolates. We ordered a variety of meals, mostly burgers and fries and ate. We snowmobiled until about 4PM and we were due back at the shop. Near the end I took a turn with Logan and let my wife speed around a bit, since she was stuck going so slow all day. I had a mini race with her, but of course it was no challenge. As we were coming in the long straight runs toward home, the sky was turning pinkish with the evening coming on and the air was crisp and clean. Once in the city of West Yellowstone to return the snowmobiles the quickest way back for us to not be late was to go beside the highway for a bit. Locals yelled at us for forgetting the rule so we side streeted it back, being careful of cars that in icy condition don’t have as much control if they happen to not see you. We got the uber back and called the rental shop. Our rental had been picked up and we would get a new one tomorrow. 

On the drive home we decided to stop in at Teds. He is from Montana so we thought being closer to the ranches that supplied Ted with buffalo and cow meat would mean that our meals would be more delicious. It was pretty good, some of us tried the buffalo burger. The 8 year old was quiet as a mouse and we were poking fun at him for being so tired. After that we ubered back to the hotel and dug in for the night for a new adventure in the morning.

Snowmobile - It’s Snowing

https://youtube.com/shorts/W4EhSv0k4Lo?feature=share

Snowmobiling Footage

https://youtube.com/shorts/pqncN17IVec?feature=share 

3rd Day

Car Rental -- Hunting Shop -- Yellowstone -- Petrified forest -- Snacks in town -- Driving all over the show

This day we had to wake up and take care of the rental. We booked the pool for the kids and left them at the hotel as we drove back to the airport to pick up our car from the rental facility. It didn’t take us long, we were back by 8AM and still the boys had caused havoc. Logan had decided it would be hilarious to throw the lawn chairs into the pool and two of the boys had been reprimanded by the staff. We reprimanded them as well and were surprised that the older one got caught up in the younger ones antics, especially since in the morning before we left they were all complaining about each other and at each other’s throats. 

Breakfast we would do at the hotel. It was provided anyway so I told everyone that they must fill themselves up because we wouldn’t be stopping at a restaurant and I wasn’t going to spoil them. Besides there is nothing wrong, with a hotel continental breakfast. We ate breakfast at the hotel for at least 3 days of the trip, both of the days that we went to Yellowstone and the intown exploration day. The breakfast spread was nice, with fruits, cereals, waffles, oatmeal, eggs and hashbrowns. Everyone ate what they wanted and I was in an oatmeal and raisin mood that week and pretty much everyday I had coffee and oatmeal for breakfast.

We piled them into the car. It was probably about 9:30 at this point and we weren’t as crazy about being up at the crack of dawn, only on the days we went skiing and snowmobiling. We got the google maps out to head to Yellowstone National Park. On the way there I decided that we would stop in and pick up some binoculars. We stopped at a local hunting shop and II picked up one nice pair and we headed out to the park. Once again everyone was nervous about my driving and I reassured everyone that I would take it easy in the park. 

We drove into Yellowstone which was 85 miles from where we were located, this was about an hour drive. The boys were on their phones or video games in the car and they had been instructed to be fully charged because once the charge wore out there was a limited number of chargers. The boys were constantly jostling one another and Logan in the middle because he was the smallest he was always pushing his legs against the other boys and complaining he had no space.

We paid at the booth to go into Yellowstone. Once into Yellowstone there was a small town we loaded up on snacks in the gift shop as we would be eating snacks for lunch that day. At the town there were all kinds of board walks around natural hot springs. We parked and walked around different springs. These were not the swimming type of springs and there were loads of signs of stories of people who walked on what looked like the ground but its actually a super thin crust and in only a minute or less you are completely boiled alive. It seemed to me that there were more stories about how many people died in each respective spring that we walked around then information about the spring itself. I am sure that is not the way it was, but when you are reading about all the people who fell in that is what you tend to remember. We spent an hour or two putzing around and looking at all the sights. Then we piled back in the car. We drove near some hot springs that people can go in beside a river and such, but unfortunately all of these were closed due to Covid lockdown, which was sad because I am sure we would have all liked to go dip or feet or go for a swim in the hot parts of the river in the middle of the winter. We had gotten a map of Yellowstone from the giftshop with interesting places on it, the types of animals you can see and the boys wanted to see the petrified trees or forest. So we drove for another hour or two on the winding and icy road. There were not many people in Yellowstone in the winter, only a few cars were on the roads once you left the little tourist trap near the entrance. Every once in a while we would see 2 or 3 cars pulled over. Whenever we saw this we got out of the vehicle to see what everyone was looking at. In this manner we were able to see bighorn sheep on the side of the road, an elk, a fox, and pronghorn deer. Buffalo were everywhere, obviously and we would stop when some were close to the road. Spotting animals from the car was also fun and the kids would put their games down and try to see the next animal. In this way we were able to spot a wolf on the side of the mountain.

We made it to the petrified trees, there was evidence boulders everywhere from a past volcanic eruption. My wife pointed out that Yellowstone is on a dormant supervolcano that could erupt at any time and destroy life as we know it on the planet. Thanks for those thoughts babe. We parked the car need the petrified point of interest and everyone got out. John and I went up ahead and the wife and the boy were lagging behind. I was in awe of the evidence of the flood with the boulders everywhere and told the boys about God’s great creation and how you could see right here in Yellowstone evidence of the flood. Steam was coming out of different parts of the snow and there was a little stream in the snow by the boardwalk. John and I were staring at the steam and the river and ice and looking at the petrified trees sign and the boardwalk waiting for the others to catch up. A group of people came down and we asked how far it was to the petrified tree. They said it was a mile hike along the trail and it wasn’t that great. So we read the sign, my wife and everyone caught up we looked at the steam and then decided than a hike was not on the agenda for the day since it was getting dark. 

Buffalo

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/m-_c75doQpA

https://youtube.com/shorts/KQvdWtDnuds?feature=share

Bighorn Sheep

https://youtube.com/shorts/r3ncGgtN2j0?feature=share

Fox

https://youtube.com/shorts/VYsAliz-yxk?feature=share

Elk

https://youtube.com/shorts/C6ILYdFYpgM?feature=share

4th Day 

Wake Up -- Drive to Red Lodge Mountain -- Skiing & Ski School -- Lunch -- Bad Pizza -- Slept thru New Year’s Eve

The third day of the Montana trip had arrived and it was time to ski. Once again it was the hustle and bustle in the early AM, my wife was running around like a chicken with no head as the saying goes trying to get the boys up and getting Mr. Cranky Pants up and dressed.The two older boys were getting increasingly harder to get out of bed and the 8 year old when dressed was walking like a ZOMBIE from the apocalypse that you had to keep your eye on lest he walk into a wall or slip on stray ice in the parking lot. He was the type that when fully snowsuited up his arms would naturally go straight from his body. Everyone needed their warmest gear and we had to be waterproof cause if you fell down and got snow on you, you would be wet the rest of the day and therefore freezing. There was no getting snow suits from Red Lodge mountain; it was what we had brought with us.  

It was about a 2 hour drive to Red Lodge Mountain from Livingston and in the opposite direction of Yellowstone. We had wanted to ski Big Sky or even the mountain in Bozeman but since it was COVID 2020 the only mountain with availability was Red Lodge and we had booked it. We were calling other mountains to try and get in, but there was no luck. It was a pleasant drive on clean roads in the valleys of Montana. We were all super excited when we finally saw Red Lodge Mountain that we would start climbing up the winding roads in the car.. The good part about it being COVID was that there were little to no lines with the skiing and no crowding and that was a blessing even though we had to drive further. Since we had went into the ditch everyone in the car was still nervous and it was a thousand times annoying every time one of the kids or my wife commented on my driving.

Once up at the top of the mountain we headed to the shop, even though we had planned and bought snow jackets and gloves and everything in Florida at Marshalls and TJ Max for deals. We were still short a few supplies. My wife didn’t have a ski mask and we didn’t have gloves. The two boys both had gloves and all their gear, because they were planning on using it later on another trip to Virgina. Tickets, gloves, ski rentals and poles set us back a hefty amount but as we only do one big trip and we had all been cooped up due to COVID it was worth the splurge. We still have most of our gear except the 8 year old who will now weed a new set. We got in que to get our boots fitted and then one by one we met outside the building. Lolo (8yo nickname) was ready and so I headed out to put the kiddo in ski school while my wife patiently waited to be the last fitted for boots and skis. We stuck Lolo in ski school and I got a lowdown on how the program worked. It would take 2 hours per school. So I got him 2 ski schools and he would be in ski school until lunch. After lunch we would take him skiing with us and see how he would do. 

It had been awhile since I had skied a difficult mountain like this. Mountains in the Rockies are a lot harder than the mountains out east. RedLodge Mountain is in the Beartooth Mountain range and is 9,416 feet. The base is 7,016 feet. This means that there is 2400  feet of vertical skiing, which is pretty awesome. We looked up how high parachuters jump from a plane. They go about 10-12,000 feet so the summit is really high especially for someone like me from Florida. Excitedly, me and my son John looked for my wife and my other son. We couldn’t find them so we got on the ski lift. The chairs were cold, the ski lifts were incredibly high. They were scary. I never remember ski lifts being so high. My wife later complained that she was terrified on the ski lifts and that Brett wouldn’t stop hitting her with his ski and scaring the daylights out of her. Looking down and then saying things like: If we fell we would die for sure. John and I got to the top of the lift and looked around for Phoebe and Brett. We finally found them, smiles plastered on all our faces except my wife's, who looked more like a ghost that a smiling vacationer that she was. Me and John took off down the mountain. Our ski abilities were pretty good and we stopped at the bottom of the first hill. Brett was still skiing with the V formation of his skis and was having a hard time controlling his speed. He still made it down to the bottom next. All three of us were at the bottom waiting for Phoebe to come down. We saw her lying on the mountain staring up and the clouds. Did she even know how to ski?

Yes, a few minutes later she got up, brushed off the snow and skied down the mountain like a PRO. We all congratulated her and laughed and asked her what was wrong. She said she was overcome by how huge the mountain was, how cold it was, and she wasn’t sure if she could do it. Then she just decided she would do it and got up and skied to the bottom. She told us, she would need some time to break herself into the mountain and that she would stick to green and blue runs at the most. So we all skied a few Green and Blues and boy, the green runs were very hard, the blue runs super hard. After a few times skiing with them, we decided that we would go to the top of the mountain. Why wouldn’t we, there were 6 chairlifts and it took 2 chair lifts to get to the very top. John and I got to the very top and stood amazement at the sheer height of where we were. Once at the very top it was only blacks down and one blue, it was so steep and so icy we took the blue but that felt like a black and that nearly killed us. 

We found Phoebe and Brett after skiing some of the harder things and said that Lolo would probably be done with ski school. We decided we would go take a look at how he was doing and then go for lunch at the lodge. We got to the ski school and saw Logan skiing with no poles no problem, he might have been better than his mom and Brett. We scooped him up and he was dying to try the mountain out. Ski school sticks you to the bunny hill and that is it. So everyone in tow, we went to the lodge to have lunch. We got into the wooden chalet style building and found a table. We all ripped off our gear and undid our boots and jackets relieved to get out of the steaminess. Sitting down we laughed and talked about the mountain and my wife went to get us lunch. We had chili dogs, hot chocolate and french fries. Logan was begging to get out of ski school and do the mountain, but my wife was too petrified to get him out. No, she would protest. I can’t even barely get myself on and off those crazy ski lifts. I am terrified to take him on there. So Logan to his disappointment was put back into ski school for the afternoon. We decided we would do 3 more hours after lunch since we still had to drive back. I reassured the little man that I would come and get him even though his mom was a chicken. Everyone was making fun of chicken mom, and so I told him I would get him for the last hour and ski with him. True to my word we all went back up the mountain. Brett was proud of the progress he was making, John and I were skiing blues and enjoying a lot of challenging terrain and my chicken wife was practicing her technique with Brett on the green runs. They tried a blue one near the end. When I went to get them the second time and went and scooped Logan, I once again offered my wife to take the boy on the mountain. She clutched her chest and said she couldn't cause she was scared and one of the other boys made chicken noises. So I took the little man on the lift and told him we would do a green run. Me and him got on and went to the top. He was 8 and pretty small but super excited. He was holding onto the pole so hard that when it was time to get off the lift I had to pull him. Later my wife was saying that she was very glad it was me and not her on the lift with him because they both would have fallen off. Logan was pretty good on the mountain, we did about three more runs and then it was time to go and turn in our skis and drive back home. 

Heading down the mountain we saw a lot of deer in the town. The boys loved seeing the deer and kept talking about hunting and how the deer only come close to people when it isn’t hunting season. We got back to our hotel and ate the worst PIZZA in the history of PIZZA. You think when you go on vacation and when you are someplace as beautiful as Montana that the food will be good. Where we are from the food is amazing. Florida has tons of great places to eat. Really! But not Livingston, the pizza we ordered tasted like they got it out of a box from Wal-Mart and then microwaved it. Even the hungry 8 year old wouldn’t eat it. Now it’s not my recommendation to do this, but we left a terrible review (which they removed) of negative a thousand stars. We laughed and forced the bad pizza down. Then even though it was New Year’s Eve we all went to bed with no celebration because we were so tired.

5th Day

Explore Bozeman -- Museum of the Rockies-- Planetarium - Indoor hot springs -- Chinese Food -- Outdoor hot springs - Rib and Chop

 

On the Fourth day, after a day of skiing and a day of snowmobiling, we were going to explore Bozeman. There was a huge museum there with lots of dinosaurs and well all kids, and even adults love dinosaurs. As a strong believer and Christian I don’t believe in the timeline that they are millions of years old, but I do believe that they are a part of God’s creation and have gone extinct. I look at the world through the lens of a believer and I know that God created everything. It was an easy day in Bozeman and we took a couple of pictures outside the museum and inside but I am not even sure at this point where all those pictures went. We saw many different dinosaurs and enjoyed the museum thoroughly. It’s fun going to the museum with the kids and the wife. I am pulling her to look at things, and everyone is talking to everyone else about something neat that they saw. We were learning about how fossils were made and how much bone is left in the fossils and all the different kinds of dinosaurs that roamed Montana before the flood. We went into the gift shop and my wife bought a pair of binoculars for Lolo so that when we went back to Yellowstone there would be less fighting over the one pair that we had.

We went and watched a movie in the Planetarium that was in the Rocky Mountain Museum. It was about the sun and as usual, I came out feeling the amazing awesomeness of God’s perfect creation of the sun and the Earth. The magnetic field of our planet put there by God protecting us is perfection. We had to wear special polarized glasses and the seats tilted completely backwards so it feels as if you are looking at the sky. One of the boys dozed off during the movie and we had to wake up the slobbering turkey at the end. After the movie we were going to head to a hot spring. We found a highly recommended hot spring on the internet. This one had a gym and several different pools. We piled the boys in the rental SUV and took off to this hotspring. I really didn’t know what to expect as I had never been to a hot spring, but when in Rome you do as the Romans do. So we did our first hotspring. This one was like a pool. There was a huge warm pool, several smaller hot pools and polar pools. There was also a steam room and sauna. The steam room and the sauna were for everyone. My honey was pinching her nose in the sauna because it stank like BO. We went into the steam room and the boys went from pool to pool and were daring each other to take a polar plunge. We had all heard of the benefits of the hot springs and how people come from all over the world to go to the pools or hot springs because of the healing properties of the dissolved minerals in the water. 

I myself jumped in the pools and played with the boys. I tried all the different rooms and pools and I wasn’t that impressed but I supposed it was OK. I was surprised because I thought a spring would be an outdoor pool, but this was a swimming pool that piped water in with a pump. Then they mixed it with different amount of water to get different temperature pools.We played for awhile but it was more of a sit and relax type place and me and the boys wanted to run around and let loose a little. It had a spa/gym atmosphere. So I decided it was time to go, rounded up all the boys and we headed to find some good Chinese food and eat it back at the hotel.

We found a chinese place in Livingston that was open, remember a lot of things were closed due to New Year’s Day and other things were closed due to Covid. We stopped and picked up our take out, headed back to the boys room upstairs in the hotel and ate. Once again, the food was super sub par. After eating, the boys all wanted to go explore more. So we cleaned up and got back in the SUV. They wanted to go to an outdoor hot spring. Brett was dying to go to the outdoor hot spring and had found one 30 miles away. It was a little far, but Honeybear wanted to go to, and all the boys wanted to go… So I said yes!

I am so glad we did. We were full and we had a great day. This hotspring that Brett had found was nestled in between two mountains and a river. The sun was setting and the hot spring was outdoors. There were tiki torches and big rock boulder gardens. You entered what looked like a trailer. Logan’s bathing suit had gotten left behind because it froze in the car. The only bathing suits they had were way too big. We got the smallest size and tied it, and told him not to jump to much or his drawers would fall off. It is hard to describe the ambience of this place. It was simply beautiful. We congratulated Brett on his awesome find and enjoyed the view and enjoyed the water.

We swam in the multiple pools in the starlight and torchlight. Logan insisted on splashing everyone when we wanted to rest. So we took turns entertaining him and throwing him in the water. The air was foggy when you breathed out and steam rose up from the pools. They had underwater lights that twinkled like the stars in the sky. It was a little piece of heaven on Earth and I was so glad that everyone convinced me to go when I wanted to go to bed because everyone had taken a toll on me.

 

 

Since we had terrible pizza and terrible chinese food, we were in the mood for something good. We asked a few locals where a good place to eat was, and they told us the Rib and Chop house. We called and there was no seating available so we ordered for pick up. Finally a local meal that was amazing! We enjoyed good food for a change and since the Rib and Chop was full, we ate in the dining area of the hotel. We set up the tables and put down napkins and ate a family style meal there. Then we sent the boys up to their room. Logan was terrorizing the two boys and every once in awhile they would call us and beg us to take him. We would say no, deal with the kiddo and go to sleep!

6th Day

Yellowstone -

This was our last day in Montana. We decided that we would go for a ride in the SUV and that we would go on a hunt for a Moose. Many of the roads were closed due to snow, so we couldn't drive to see the Old faithful. We drove and admired animals and searched and searched for moose. We heard that there was a moose in a certain area in the winter in the park. So we drove there. We finally found the moose. You couldn’t tell if it was male or female and it was sitting way off in the distance in snow. This was also an eventful day where we stopped in a little town, ate sandwiches, made some yellow snow, saw lots of animals, played a lot of tunes, and drove to the other side  of Yellowstone. 

On the flight back in the chicago airport me and the wife got a plate of garlic fried brussel sprouts slathered with parmesan cheese and then all of a sudden we had to board the plane. There was no way we could hide the smell of the delicious and super stinky dish, we felt bad because people were making faces at us. We tried to eat it quickly to get rid of the stench and at one point a lady asked to change her seat so she wasn’t sitting next to us. We were trying to be circumspect but Brett kept saying, “Why did you order something so stinky.” over and over again. Thanks Brett for calling us out, that was pretty much the last fiasco and we were on our way back home. All in all it was a great trip with the family.
Super fun trip and I would go visit again.

#borca

 Taking a break on the groomed snowmobile trails

sean,john,brett,logan