Marilyn (Lyn) Baker (Jackson)

After reading the above entries, I have to put in my two cents.  Bob and I absolutely LOVE the western states.  We have visited South Dakota, Montana, Colorado, Wyoming and Arizona.  We made several mission trips to Native American reservations in S. Dakota and Montana.  We grew to love the people and enjoyed their pow-wows immensely,.  The drummers and dancers in their beautiful and colorful regalia - a sight to see.  We saw Yellowstone, Old Faithful, Mt. Rushmore, Grand Canyon and many sites in between.  Bob hunted elk and antelope in Colorado.  After visiting Cody, Wyoming, I told Bob I could live there if only I could bring my kids and grandkids. We have so many wonderful memories.  Sleeping in a teepee, Bob killling an antelope within the first 6 minutes of the first day of hunting season, the open ranges, the Rocky Mountains-I could go on and on.  Guess I have only two unpleasant memories.  Sleeping in a small motel in Sisseton, SD, while a hurricane type storm rattled the walls (scaring me to death) and dumped hail stones that beat dents in cars and campers.  Getting a terrible stomach bug on an airplane while headed to Montana.  Got so sick I passed out in the hotel bathroon, hitting my head on the commode.  Bob had to call EMS.  Our 9-year-old granddaughter who went with us had it the next morning and threw up in a theater after a play and  in front of the buffet line at the Cowboy Breakfast (probably no one there was hungry after that.  Lol). We chose to go to Calgary, Canada, this summer for the Calgary Stampede (another check mark on Bob's bucket list); already planning next summer's trip to Frontier Days in Cheyenne, Wyoming (another item on Bob's bucket list).  Can't wait to see those beautiful blue skies again.  If you have never had the privilege of visiting these beautiful states, i would also suggest you put them on your bucket list.  You will not be disappointed.   

Laurena Hutto (Taylor)

Hey guys....guess we were all born a century too late.  My husband Bobby and I just got back from a trip a few weeks ago to CO, WY and MT.  We were in the Yellowstone too.  We go often to that area (we were married there years ago in Cody in Old Trail Town's saloon).  We took an "off the grid" tour with Native American Guides this trip and rode horses on the trails the Custer and Major Benteen rode in the Custer National Park.  Our guide was of a decendent of a member of the Crow Nation during the battle.  They still own land in Crow Nation, MT. They had wranglers saddle up their horses and our guide took us over the hills and fording the Yellowstone River into the Yellowtail Coulee and Cedar Coolee where Custer passed through.  We rode to the boggy area where Custer's mules would not move any further with his "hardtack" and he could not get it to the battlefield when it broke out.  We saw the battlefield from the vantagepoint they saw it, and where the encampment of all the teepees were.  The horse herd was so thick, back to back with thousands of horses it looked like the ground was moving as they looked down from the top of the far ridges.  It was an awesome ride with first hand tales of the battle from the indian prespective.  We also had guide to show us private land sites where Sitting Bull hid out before fleeing to Canada and drew petroglyths on the rocks around him.  As well as visiting the site where Crazy Horse held up before surrendering to the military where they killed him.  His decendents had hung prayers cloths recently around the rock formation where he hid out and drew pictures on the rocks as well while hiding there.  They have ceremonies regularly for his loss there.  It is not open to the but our guide took us there.  The guides took us to POWWOW at Lame Deer and intepreted the dances and drums for us at the ceremonial. 

We went to the Cody 4th Rodeo and all the events there, and to Yellowstone and up through Lamar Valley, Old Faithful too. 

You will love Cheyenne Frontier Days, as we have been several times, as well as to Calgary to the Stampede.  Why have we not gotten together with all these old friends who go to the same places we go??  I have been up and down Chief Joseph's trail for years, and the Big Horn Mountains too.  We also love the West from Moab to Ruidoso, Sante Fee and Chama to the Mesa Verde, to the Badlands and all in between.

The class of 1966 is one more adventurous group of people.  Small world isn't it.

Laurena Hutto-Taylor and Bobby Taylor

Kay Manning (Elrod)

HOT TOPICS, The Wild, Wild West!

Laurena: How long did your trip take?  Did you camp the whole time?  What kinds of wildlife did you see? 

It is interesting how all of you have such similiar interests.  Maybe you should start a travel group, bring your bikes, your horses and your fishing poles.  I have such a renewed respect for all of you and your adventures. You are the "doers" and the "mischief makers". Please keep the stories coming.....I would be interested to know how hard it is to ship a Harley to WY for a fly and ride?  How did Jimmy travel to Sturgis, did you pull the bike or ride all the way?  Laurena, did you pull a horse trailer, I'm sure ya'll didn't ride all the way in the right lane!  That interstate traffic can be rough! So proud of you all!

Laurena Hutto (Taylor)

Kay...

We ride in just about every state we visit, but we arrange it with people who live out west.  The horses we rode on belonged to the Crow Indians this time.  When we ride in Estes we use the horses at the park and take a guide who carries bear spray and a gun.  We generally ride over the Continental Divide there.  When in NM we ride in different places on horses that belong to locals.  It would be too rough to take an Eastern Carolina's horse out west with the altitude and climate changes, not to mention the feeds and forage differences. Horses would take a while to aclimate to the environment, so it is best to use horses from the area for those rides.  We generally stay a week, 10 days or 14 days on the ground.  We saw Bear, Elk, Buffalo, Antelope, Wolf, Coyote, Mustangs this time.  You occasionally see Mountain Lion (Cougar).  We stayed mostly in private cabin on ranch this time.  Sometimes we do B&B around the state as we did in Alaska.  Sometimes it is ranch, sometimes a cabin in a campground setting like Moab/Arches.  It's easier to rent your 4-wheeler, or your horses from someone.  You can rent Harley's out West for road trips.  You can trailer them easier than a horse who eats.

We have all sorts of options, but we normally fly out so as not to "burn too much of our daylight", then we rent a car or truck.  You have options out West to stay in a Teepee, buy your own and ship it home, rent a Wikiup if you like, or rent an RV there instead of driving your own. 

We have probably all fished out there; took a bushplane once across the Cook Inlet to Wolverine Creek on an unhabitated island and went salmon fishing with the bear fishing for the same thing next to the John boat;, and went hunting for all the treasures you can see with the eye. Rafted down the Animas River out of Durango; crawled around in cliff dwellings in the Mesa Verde, or at Chaco Canyon in NM; caves in the Borax mines of Death Valley; gone down in gold mines in Cripple Creek.  So much to see and do in this country, with so much of it free for the seeker.

Kay Manning (Elrod)

Jeremiah Johnson's grave in Cody, WY

"His final residence was in a veterans home in Santa Monica, California. He was there for exactly one month before dying on January 21, 1900. His body was buried in a veterans cemetery.^[ However, after a six-month campaign led by 25 seventh grade students and their teacher, Johnson's body was relocated to Cody, Wyoming in June 1974."

Kay Manning (Elrod)

WOW girl, you don't mess around!  I hope you are recording all your adventures in some way - video, photos, or a journal.  As hard as you work and with all the traveling you do with your  job, how do you find time for leisure travel like this?  Ya'll plan well!

By the way, we'd love to have a picture of ya'll out there in the wild, wild west!

Laurena Hutto (Taylor)

I know...isn't that cool.  Robert Redford came there to Old Trail Town in Cody to be a pallbearer at the funeral.  We got married in the Saloon there that was brought board by board from Meeteetse, Wyoming.

The owner of the town agreed to let us be the only couple to ever get married in that town.  Took me a year to get him to agree, and that was the only building that could accommodate the music and the videographer equipment to perform the service.  A former judge fromYork Country, then residing in Wapiti, WY outside the East Gate of the Yellowstone, married us.  It was a coincidence we met him there in WY from a mutual friend.  He wore his cowboy hat and jeans instead of a judges robe for us.  We had our wedding cake on the poker table and my bouquet on the bar waiting.  Our friends and family thought we were touring the Old Trail Town when we all paid our $6 bucks to get in.  The owner had nailed up posters in the town that day "Wanted...Witnesses for Public Wedding in the Saloon at 4 PM".  Our register was at the front door and people from everywhere were gathered.  Our friends called us down to the saloon to see the so called "shotgun" wedding to be held and thought it would be a joke kind of event.  They had no idea it was Bobby and I who were to be married.  The music began to plan and the friends and family began to shove us into the saloon doors "ya'll get married...you live together and its about time".  We surprised them when we walked on in and pulled notes out of our pockets and began handing them out "Will you give me away" note to my son; "will you be my best man" to a friend, and to the maid of honor etc. etc.  They began to scream and shout when they figured out it was for real.  We had the ceremony there in the saloon and cut the cake with strangers among our guests.  We ended up across the road at "Cassies" Supper Club (the city's former brothel house run by a lady named Cassie back when Buffalo Bill Codys rodeo company wintered there every year.  She made plenty of money when she had moved that house of ill repute outside the city limits to this location.  It was too funny.  We stayed the rest of the time in cabins I had rented for a week there.  They gave us Buffalo Bill's corner room upstairs in the Irma for our Honeymoon night.  The Irma was the hotel Cody built named after his daughter.  It houses the huge wood carved bar that the Queen gave Buffalo Bill when he took his rodeo company to England.  She had the bar put on a boat and shipped it back to America for him and he had it put in the hotel. 

That was a surprise wedding story for all of us to remember in 2003. 

Deanna (Dee) Ratterree (Nobles)

I am loving your stories of your marriage and travel.

D. Anne Bagley (Elliott)

I am loving your stories also. Jimmy always gets someone to talk!

Kay Manning (Elrod)

Laurena: That is the coolest wedding story I have ever heard!  Please send pictures.

Yes, Anne, Jimmy has a way of drawing things out. 

Sometimes I think the small details of our lives don't amount to much - or at least we think they don't - but when you add them all up there is a great story to be told, such as in Laurena's travel and wedding details.  What I have learned by reading all these stories is that some of our classmates have a real lust for life and making every minute count. I envy them their enthusiasm (Jimmy, Laurena, Richard, and so many others).  Thanks for sharing!  I'd love to hear more.

Kay Manning (Elrod)

Cassie Waters (aka Cassie Lebeau)

“In the early 1900’s Cassie and her father migrated to Cody.  While she quickly found love, her happy ending was cut short a few years later with the unexpected death of her husband. As a means to support herself, Waters changed her name and opened a brothel near the town limits in 1912.

By the mid 1920’s the construction of a new school near her business forced Waters to relocate. She re-opened on the edge of town and had continued success until her death in 1952. Her legacy, however, still lives on.

Waters was widely known for her skills as a businesswoman. She employed a group of women, including a rumored politician’s wife, in order to cater to her diverse customer base.  It was her kind heart, however, that won the respect of local politicians and businessmen.”

From “Guns of the Old West” magazine

Rebecca Littlefield (Jones)

LOVE these stories of the WEST.  Like reading a good book!  Pales in comparison to

my Virginia City & Gold Hill, NV trip. Post  pictures:-)

Becky Armstrong (Helms)

I've always wanted to visit the states you mention. Do you think they have buggy rides for those of us who do not ride horses of any kind????

Kay Manning (Elrod)

Well, Beck, as I said before I think they need to start a travel group.  I'm sure somewhere out West there are covered wagon trains. Wouldn't that be fun - maybe our next reunion we can arrange a wagon train through some of this country.  We, of course, would allow the Harleys, don't they count as part of the "herd"?

Laurena: I see Rebecca is requesting pictures too.  Wedding pictures and other wild life would be great!

Jimmy Vick

You know that a biker can find beer. Had these at the Irma Hotel at the bar mentioned eariler.

Marilyn (Lyn) Baker (Jackson)

Bob and I stayed in the Irma also.  Love old hotels like that one. 

Kay Manning (Elrod)

I was just reading in the AARP magazine about Cyndi Lauper. It said there are two kinds of people in the world, those who sit at a table and those who sit at the bar. Table sitters value comfort, privacy, predictability. Bar sitters happily sacrifice those things for the chance encounters, the unpredictability, the fun.  I am the table sitter. Laurena, Jimmy, Richard, Bobby and Lynn are the bar sitters. I think it's time to change my seat!

The Irma Hotel, Cody WY

The Buffalo Bill Room, Irma Hotel, Cody WY

Becky Armstrong (Helms)

Kay,I think the travel group concept is a great idea. I would sign up and meet ya'll out there at the designated watering hole. I had to read up on western ways to keep up with all you cowpokes. I will definitely remember to not wave at Laurena when she is on her horse, as it might spook the horse. Instead a nod is the proper greeting.

Marilyn (Lyn) Baker (Jackson)

I'm thinking about making a reservation at the Historic Plains Hotel in Cheyenne for our trip next summer.  Understand it is an old hotel also.  Has anyone stayed there, and if so, give me a review, please.  Thanks.

Laurena Hutto (Taylor)

I have not stayed there, but I have seen it in downtown and it is a beautiful/historic place.  It is only about 3-4 miles from there to the Cheyenne Frontier Park, maybe a 15-20 minute drive.  When we go to Frontiier Days Rodeo it is always harder to get rooms in town.  We have only stayed at bed & breakfast places in and around the area.  If you plan on going during Frontier Days Rodeo which is a 10 day rodeo event, better book a year out.  It is a great time in Cheyenne during the rodeo.  The grounds are permanent and the villages are awesome, plus the rodeo is the greatest outdoor rodeo in the world (equal to the Calgary Stampede with riders, events, entertainment people in concert at night.)  Cowboy town...if you like that sort of thing.  We love that. 

I am sure there are a lot of reviews on that hotel you could read about and see what people think. 

Laurena

Kay Manning (Elrod)

www.reservation-desk.com has some great pictures.  There is another web site with "ghost stories".  Sounds intriguing!

Kay Manning (Elrod)

HERMINE:  Just got word from Lyn Jackson that her daughter is fine, spent the night with her children in the closet with bicycle helmets on. 

Mike Lamb is near Jacksonville and says that there was lots of rain, wind and a long power outage but the beer was holding out.  All is well .........

Kenneth Yates

Seems like Carolyn and myself are not the only ones who like to travel.We jusy got back off a trip up to the northeast.We hit Mass.,Conn., Delware,R.H.,N.J.,N.Y.,R.I.,Maine,Vermont and Pa.So now we like Alaska having all 50 states.Next year we are planning on traveling Rt. 66 from Chicago to California.In Maine we went all the way to Fort Kent were HWY 1 starts.Now we  've  been to both ends.

Kay Manning (Elrod)

That was quite a trip. Have you any pictures you can share with us?

Kay Manning (Elrod)

ON THE ROAD AGAIN:  There is a bike rally in Maggie Valley this weekend. Do we know where Lyn & Bobby are? Richard Heckle? I guess we do know where Jimmy V is!