Sunday, July 01, 2012

Legacy of Flight Museum, Rexburg, Idaho

We are currently in a campground near Rexburg.  Looking for things to do, we found the Legacy of Flight Museum, so we thought we would check it out.  Really glad that we did.  The museum holds about 18 airplanes that are all flyable.  We had our own tour guide who told us the history of every plane.  There was also a small museum upstairs with stuff from the civil war to Operation Enduring Freedom.  Well worth our time.

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Very rare find.

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The P-51 was the first WWII fighter capable of escorting bombers all the way to Germany and back.

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Bob Hoover’s Ole Yeller.  Bob set many records in this airplane.  The Smithsonian wants it, but they want to gut it and Bob doesn’t like that idea.

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Legend has it that a Chicago bootlegger commissioned the Howard Aircraft Co., during prohibition, to build an airplane that could hold 15 cases of whiskey.  After he admired the craft as a “damn good airplane”, this Howard became known as the Howard DGA-15.

Teton National Park, 2012

Many years ago, we stayed in Yellowstone and took one day to drive to Teton National Park.  We decided that we needed more than one day to really see the park.  We made reservations at Flagg Ranch for 4 nights because we could have 20 amp power, however, we kept experiencing power surges which shut down our power so we only stayed 1 night.  We moved to the Coulter Bay dry camping area and really enjoyed that campground.  We were right in the middle of the action.  Gary was close to the Jackson Dam and spent a lot of hours catching fish there.  We were also close to a spot where a moose came out every evening to feed.  Got to see black bear and took a float trip down the snake.  We finished our camping by moving to Gros Ventre dry camping area closer to Jackson.  There we were able to see Mormon Row, buffalo, and go into town to the chuck wagon dinner.

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Saw this tundra swan on way into Jackson

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Yellow headed blackbird

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barn located on Mormon Row

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Bar J Wranglers, Jackson, Wy

This was our third chuck wagon dinner and show.  Must say, we rated this one as our #1.  The guys were great, great harmony and jokes were very, very, funny.  Food was terrific.

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Great vocals and jokes

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Fantastic bass.

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fiddle champion in Idaho

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Very talented musician on dobro, steel guitar, banjo.

Teton National Park, Float Trip, Snake River

One day we drove down a road called Deadman.  When we got to the end, we found many float trip crews getting ready to launch.  After talking to them, we decided to use the company that was located at the Jackson lodge.  We arranged to take the lunch trip.  What a great day.  Our guide was terrific.  Didn’t even get wet.  We were able to see a moose, some geese, and a bald eagle.  We learned quite a lot about the park and how “dude” ranching came to be.

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Our raft, there were only 8 people on the raft.

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Bald eagle

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Yellowstone National Park 2012

We stayed in Yellowstone years ago, but could not resist going back this year.  We drove the western half of the loop which goes by Old Faithful.  We arrived in time to watch Old Faithful put on a show, then continued on the loop.  We stopped off to see a grizzly and a few buffalo.  We decided that we would, once again, just have to camp in Yellowstone. 

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Old Faithful

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you can just barely see the grizzly.