Drive-by Shootings

These've been hanging around on my phone for a while. They were all caught in Livingston, except the last one, which was in Billings.

The Great American Eclipse of 2017

We had planned on staying put in Thermopolis for the eclipse, where we'd get 57 seconds of totality, rather than risk the expected crowds further South where it'd last longer. Our plans changed when the Bodeswells contacted us. They were in the company of the Mali Mish and Wandrly families outside of Shoshoni at a Game & Fish campground not 60 miles away, just off totality's center line, there was plenty of space, a kid-swimmable lake, it was free, and did we want to join them?

Yes, thank you. Ludwig nestled right in.

The next day eclipse preparations began in earnest.

The Bodeswell's eclipse-viewing apparatus.

Paddling in celebration of the eclipse (that's Stinkerton being towed).

Glasses, check.

The ambient light changed and we headed up a nearby hillock as the Sun was reduced to a thin crescent.

The camera started having trouble focusing as totality was an instant away.

And just like that, *blink*, the Sun disappeared. We didn't try to mess with the camera settings to get the perfect shot; all this light is from the corona. To us standing there, the Sun itself was completely covered, just like in this picture. That's Venus at upper right. There were a few stars visible too.

Right-click, 'Open link in new tab' to see 360° of dusk.

Two minutes, nineteen-point-nine seconds later (according to NASA), the Sun blinked back on, just like that. I had to work the next morning, so as early afternoon re-brightened we said goodbye to our eclipse crew.

 Mistake. I should've taken an extra day off at work. Traffic was backed up for miles.

The hour drive to Thermopolis, where our portion of the jam mostly broke up, took over two and-a-half. Traffic didn't clear out altogether until Cody. WYDoT said later that this many people had likely never been in Wyoming before at the same time. 

Back in to smoky Montana.

The smoke made for a nice sunset though.

miles 337,547.8-338,188.7

City of Heat

We went to Thermopolis Wyoming for the eclipse. I drove.

Melissa slept.

The girls were rowdy.

There was topography.

There was desert.

Thermopolis has quite a bit going on, actually. We recommend it.

We biked everywhere:

...to the suspension bridge...

...to the rock people accidentally made...

...to this '73 Super Beetle...

...and to the Wyoming Dinosaur Center. I challenge anyone to show me a better natural history museum in a town of less than 3,500 people. Among many other things they had a trilobite mass grave...

...a fish eating a pterosaur eating a fish (yes, really)...

...and the best Archaeopteryx fossil in the world, and the only Archaeopteryx on display in the Western Hemisphere. (We also biked to two different hot spring swimming pools.)

Speaking of dinosaurs, these are our chickens' eggs, which we turned into pancakes back at the RV park.

Yes, we like Thermopolis.

Next: the Great American Eclipse

Luna

A couple weeks ago a local VWer (Richie) alerted me to a family having trouble with their '70 Westy down toward the Park.

The description seemed like a fuel issue to me but upon arrival it was clearly the clutch, which is what everyone else already thought. Luna arrived at our garage on the hook.

J and Richie and I tore into it pretty much immediately. Some funniness involving the 1970 bus transaxle and the 1973 Beetle engine meant we had to drop the transaxle and engine as a unit. Fortunately pre-1971 bus engines are the easiest to remove among all air-cooled Volkswagens. That rear apron comes off, and you basically just pull the engine out.

It was the clutch. The ring on the pressure plate had come loose and played havoc. The pressure plate was plenty blued as well, and the clutch disk was just barely within tolerance. J ordered all new parts and new engine mounts (one was sheared in half) and, while waiting for them to arrive, tended to a few other things I gave him as homework.
A valve adjustment and some minor tweaking later (note: fuel hoses have to attach to the fuel pump in the correct direction), and off they went. Last I knew they were in Minnesota.
Happy trails, B, E, and J!

Fairy Lake

Fairy Lake Campground sits at the end of an atrocious 7-mile road in Gallatin National Forest, about 40 miles from our house.

After we arrived E got busy helping with the fire.

Stinkerton just goofed around, as usual.

But she did decide later to sleep downstairs by herself, and succeeded.

Starting at about 5am vehicles were steadily streaming past Ludwig, some sidling up next to him. Whiskey tango foxtrot?

Unwittingly we'd camped at the starting line of a race. Three hundred runners in five waves set off along the Bridgers' ridgeline, the first wave at 7am.

We escaped to the lake.

On the way out we waved 'hello' to some cattle.

Beautiful campground and beautifuler lake, terrible road and terribler timing (because of the race).

post script

Just in time for this trip, me and E replaced Ludwig's faucet. Working sink and 35 L of water! Functionality as originally intended! Yay! And it only took 13 years.