Travels WithJohn and Janice

Travel blog

Every trip we've shared since 2011—filter by where we went, when we traveled, or what we explored.

Showing 4 of 236 posts

Bill Fairweather's grave on Boot Hill, Virginia City, Montana, with the sign noting his discovery of gold at Alder Gulch in 1863United States
8 min read2013

Dateline July 9, 2013, Montana, Big Sky Country

South out of Yellowstone into Teton National Forest, the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Parkway with the Tetons all the way down the right side, and into Jackson, where the farmers' market was in full swing on a Saturday morning. Then north to Virginia City, Montana, a real ghost town with deep family weight: John's mother's great uncle, Bill Fairweather, was the prospector who discovered gold at Alder Gulch in May 1863 and effectively founded the place. John had last stood at Bill's grave in 1958, at age eleven. Then over to Big Sky to spend a couple of days with old family friend John Bohlinger, Lt. Governor of Montana from 2005 to 2013, the Republican half of Brian Schweitzer's bipartisan ticket. Lunch at the Montana Club in Helena. Spruce River Campground outside Kalispell, an electrical problem on the Roadtrek that needed a part to be picked up in Seattle. On to Lake Coeur d'Alene.

#wyoming#tetons#jackson-hole
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Old Faithful erupting, Yellowstone National ParkUnited States
6 min read2013

Dateline July 4, 2013, Yellowstone National Park

Out of Cody on the morning of the 4th, the short drive west into Yellowstone. Through Shoshone National Forest, in past Yellowstone Lake with its hot pools steaming along the shore, an elk in the trees. Two days of southern loop and northern loop with everything Yellowstone is famous for: Old Faithful erupting (Artemisia Geyser around the corner, easily as beautiful), a grizzly on the road, a 5:00 AM Janice drive up to Hayden Valley with John still asleep in the back, a bison herd that brought their late-season babies right past the rig within touching distance, Tower Falls, a pair of black bears crossing the road, and a Saturday morning so quiet that you could see a female elk just grazing alongside the lake. Then south to the Tetons.

#wyoming#yellowstone-national-park#yellowstone
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Sunset behind the arena at the Cody Stampede Rodeo, July 4, 2013United States
6 min read2013

Dateline July 3-4, 2013, Cody, Wyoming, as in Buffalo Bill Cody

Into Cody after the long drive across Wyoming. Fuel for the Roadtrek, fuel for the body (a local butcher with the best black rye we have ever had), and an early bed. The Stampede Parade on the 3rd is led by the only mounted Marine Color Guard in the entire US military, based in Barstow, California. A breakfast at Pete's Cafe that could have been a Norman Rockwell drawing. A drive out twenty miles to the McCullough Peaks Wild Horse Management Area to find a hundred wild mustangs on BLM land. And the Cody Stampede Rodeo on the 4th, running since 1919, with the sun going down behind the arena. Then on to Yellowstone.

#wyoming#cody#buffalo-bill
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Camped outside Centennial, Wyoming, at the edge of the Snowy RangeUnited States
7 min read2013

Dateline July 3, 2013, Traveling from Missouri to Cody, Wyoming

Out of Missouri toward Cody. The golf course we had on the schedule was hosting a Missouri Golf Association tournament, so we adjusted, did the Truman Library, then headed west past the Eisenhower Library in Abilene. John could not drive past Manhattan, Kansas without stopping at Kansas State University, his old college, to see the fraternity house and a couple of other old haunts. Then across Kansas to Lake Waconda in the wheat country, the largest community ball of twine in Cawker City, Ft. Collins for golf, Cheyenne for RV light repairs, and into the Medicine Bow National Forest. The Ames Monument at the highest point of the original transcontinental railroad. A campsite outside Centennial, Wyoming, found through the kindness of a bartender and a woman named Jenny. The Snowy Range at sunrise. A pronghorn antelope, the last surviving member of its family. Split Rock on the Oregon Trail. Saratoga's hot springs. And the dinosaur museum at Thermopolis, with one of twelve known Archaeopteryx specimens in the world. Then on to Cody.

#kansas#manhattan-kansas#kansas-state-university
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