Provo UT to St Regis MT

On July 2 we arrived at the home of my Dad and his wife Vena Lee in Provo UT. The RV parks were full so we parked in their side yard. It worked out perfect! We got to visit with some of Vena Lee’s daughters and families. Korkie loves being in Provo. They have a large back yard with grass and the next yard has several sheep and baby lambs! He can roam free in the yard and bark at the sheep! There was a parade in Provo on the 4th with lots of bands, floats and balloons. We were invited to one of Vena’s daughter’s home who live on top of a hill overlooking Provo. They can see several displays of fireworks from their yard and Korkie was invited. So off we go. Korkie did really well making friends with everyone. Then some poppers went off. Well, he started shaking real bad. We took him for a walk down the block but he got worse. So we had to take him home. We missed all the fireworks. We made plans to meet in Helena MT the end of July for a family reunion once we got hold of my brother Terry and his wife Diane. We left Provo on Monday the 5th.
Decided to see the Dinosaur National Monument Park in UT. We stayed at the Outlaw Trail RV Park in Jensen UT. Now this park looked like the down and out outlaws still lived there. A few of the rigs were OK but most looked like they had been abandoned or should be. When we arrived to ask for a space the manager just said “take your pick and I will catch up with you later.” Well, we had all the hook ups we needed and a laundry which we really needed. On our way out of UT we had stopped at a Rest stop for lunch. There was a nice trail so I took off for a short walk. When I got back, Bob is standing by the sink with brown stuff all over his shirt and shorts and glass all around him. A bottle of Worchester sauce had exploited as he opened the cupboard. We cleaned up as much as we could and Bob changed clothes. Worchester sauce smells pretty good for a while but after several hours it wears thin and becomes yucky. This RV Park was across the Hwy from the Utah visitor’s center and the entrance to the Dinosaur Park and had a laundry which we needed very badly. What more could we want so we signed up for 2 nights. Still didn’t know what the rate was. We did some site seeing of the area and took an Auto tour of Cub Creek Road and the Dinosaur Park. We enjoyed it very much.
We were then on our way to Lafayette CO to see our daughter Kay and her family. The Bark Beetle has hit Utah and Colorado very bad. Large mountain ranges are filled with dead trees. The only way to get rid of them is a very cold, below freeze for several days. The weather has been too warm the last few years.
We pulled into Kay’s drive way around 2:00 PM. I was to call Kay at work when we arrived and she would come home. I left a message that we were there and we went ahead and got settled. My phone rang about 30 min later and that was when we got the message from Vena Lee that my brother, Terry Cannon had passed away in Clancy MT. But I had only talked to him the day before and he was fine. On Thursday AM, his golf day, he had got up, put on his golf clothes then collapsed and died from an embolism. Well, Terry said many times that he did not want to get old. He loved to golf. I guess it was fitting that he died quite young (he was 68) and he was getting ready to play golf.
We stayed in Lafayette that night, had a nice time with Kay and granddaughter Elisa. Bruce and Kristi Rose were in Las Vegas and would be back the next day. Kristi dances in competitions around the country.
The next day, Friday, we headed up to Clancy MT. We got about 3 blocks from Kay’s house and heard a loud bang. Imagine the sound that comes from metal hitting a concrete embankment going about 35 miles an hour. A loud BANG! We looked around, narrow road, no place to stop to see what we hit. Finally a right hand lane appeared and we could park and see what happened. The magnetic sensor switch for the stairs had fallen off and the stairs actuated just as we crossed the one lane bridge. They were bent back at a 30 degree angle. Could not get them up, down or off! After working with several implements, Bob unhooked the car from the back, drove in front of the rig, took the steel safety chain and tied it to the car and the other end to the stairs, then back up. Darn if it didn’t work! Didn’t look too good, but got the stairs up.
It took us 2 days to get to Helena. My 94 year old Dad and Vena Lee had come in an hour before us. Terry & Diane’s children, Lisa and Brian and their 3 children from upstate NY had come in the day before and Ben & Sue and their son from Helena came to the house every day. Vena Lee’s daughter Diane came in from Canada and our daughter Lynda and son Rick came from CA. We laughed, cried and hugged each other. A cocoon of family members is so comforting in time of grief. We had the service on Tuesday and on Thursday the family had bought a Blue Spruce tree and had it planted on the #3 hole at the golf course Terry played at. Autopsy revealed blood clot on the lung. They had been treating him for heart problems.
On Friday Bob and I headed to the mountains of Montana for a rest. We chose St Regis MT, a small (population 300) mountain town. Our campground is on top of a hill surrounded by green mountain forests. There are no signs of Bark Beetle here. The RV Park has walking trails that take you into the forest and through meadows. We have seen deer and Elk in the evening. It gets dark around 10:00PM here. We have been here for a week and will be heading out tomorrow. Thinking of heading south around the Grand Tetons!