July 31 & Aug 1 The Miller Ranch

So its been a while since Ive written last, I haven’t had a whole lot of down time lately. I have met lots of people including: the nicest German couple ever, a couple from Alaska and the husband taught Sarah Palin’s daughter during the election (not the whore, the other one), a really nice couple from Chicago swearing they will get me a job there, and a whole lot of other people I dont feel like listing. This weekend was awesome. My friend Kate and her family have a ranch about 10 miles south of Jackson Wyoming. Jackson is about a 2 hr drive south from where I stay and you have to drive directly through Grand Teton NP to get there. Sucks. Kate, her friend Julie who now lives in Fort Collins CO, and her mom Dee Dee were all going to be at the ranch for a few days. They invited me down to check it out. I ended up getting out of work on Sunday, so I had Saturday night through Tuesday free. Word up. The drive to Jackson was pretty epic. The weather was unreal when I started, the kind of weather you want all the time. Warm in the sun, perfect in the shade, perfect day to drive or jump rope with your posse. A few miles outside the south entrance of Yellowstone, I came upon a small, sloppy traffic jam. It looked like there was a big brown blob on the left side of the road in the grass near the traffic jam. As I got closer, I realized it was a MF BEAR!!!!! YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES no YES!!!! It was a huge grizzly. HUGE. I took a video of the bear ripping up grass and doing other funny bear stuff, its too long to post, but we all know bears are funny as shit… until they attack you. If I were a bear, I would attack people too. And cars. The people were whistling and yelling at the bear, snapping pics, taking video, pulling their car as close as they could leaning out of the car to get the closest pic possible, just general annoying stuff. I heard the bears in Yosemite beat cars up on the regular. They walk up to you car, and if you aren’t quick to dole out yum yums, they start bashing in your hood with their paws. Ive heard about this more than once, both from people who worked there previously. Needless to say when I drive through Yosemite my car will be covered in honey and polish sausage… So I cruised past the bear and on through the rest of Teton. The weather got a little dicey once all the Tetons were visible, but it made for some amazing pics. Even with the weather at the end of the drive, it still only took 2 hours. Once I got to the ranch, it was better than I imagined. You take a steep gravel road up and around beautiful Wyoming back country to a house tucked away on a hill surrounded by mountains and gorgeous views. The first night we ate ribs, drank like fish, laughed a lot, it was great. That night I slept on the couch and had a HD tv with just about any channel I could ask for. I haven’t had tv for months, and/or cable for a couple yrs now. So when I laid down on the couch and turned on the tube, what did I end up watching after channel surfing??? Jersey Shore. Its just so good. Ronnie and Jennifer need to get their shit together.

The next day the 4 of us went to a neighbor’s place. This neighbor is Mill Iron Ranch. The family who owns the ranch is 5^th and 6^th generation original settlers. Same place the whole time. Crazy. They do horseback tours around the area, so we fed some horses and checked out their spread. It was awesome. They prob have 100 horses or so, lots of Clydesdale types too. Julie left after the horse visit, Kate, Dee Dee and I went on a hike. Kate’s family’s land backs up to a National Forest, so you could say we went hiking in their backyard. Now that I have been a few places in the US, I can say that Montana and Wyoming are def in the top 5 most beautiful states, right behind Kansas. Its just great out here. The hike was full of beautiful valleys and mountains, green fields, rock cliffs, creeks, evergreen trees, all sorts of flowers, and a great tour guide in Dee Dee to explain it all. After the hike, the 3 of us cleaned up and went to dinner for Dee Dee’s birthday at Rendevous in Jackson. We didn’t last long after we got back from dinner, we were all pretty tired.