qpmarl blog

I'm looking for a job now.  I tried the barges in Red Wing where Matt works, but they're not hiring right now.  I'm looking for a job working on/with computers, but I'll probably take the first job that comes my way, no matter what it is.

This is the dollar tracking page at www.wheresgeorge.com.  I got a dollar bill over a year ago with this website on it.  I intended to go there and track the dollar, but never got around to it.

It's kind of interresting, but also mostly a waste of time... check it out if you find it interresting, you can track any dollar, but probably only the ones with the where's george stamp will have any listings... my dollar only had 2 previous entries, but that's probably mostly because I've had it for over a year.  Now I'll spend it and someone else can track it.

I'm back in good old Minnesota now.  But it's as hot (and more humid) here as it was in Wyoming.  I'll be meeting my dad in the Twin Cities area tomorrow, so I'll be able to get the pictures of the place in Grey Bull (pronounced like Greyble).

My future is fairly uncertain right now.  I'm thinking of trying to get a job on the barges down in Red Wing.  Or maybe I'll try to get a job fixing computers again.  And I plan to get SCUBA certification soon.  I have no idea where I'll be a year from now (or even six months).  I may move to Grey Bull with my parents and try to get a job there.

This'll be my last post from Wyoming.

Tomorrow we will head to Grey Bull with some of the horses so that my parents will have fewer trips to make when they get back from Pennsylvania and Canada. Then my mom and I will depart from Grey Bull and head to Floodwood, MN. We will spend a day or two there and then head for Afton, MN where my dad will meet us. Then my parents will continue on to Pennsylvania, spend a few days there and then head for Desert Lake, Ontario. They'll be at the lake for a few weeks, then head back to Wyoming and move from Cora to Grey Bull.

I'll try to get some pictures of the place in Grey Bull to post later.

We took the Southens to the camp that my parents have been hunting from for several years. My mom and dad had taken one load with two pack horses of gear out to the camp a few nights before. Two people had to walk out because there were seven people and only six horses, but one horse had a pack. We borrowed two horses(Sass and Taco) from a friend. Our horses were Eboniet(the black), Windy, Lynn, and Selena(the short one Marc rode on the way out).

Park and unload the horses. Beyond this point it's classified Wilderness Area and motorized equipment and vehicles are not allowed.


We had six horses in the trailer. A few of them got scraped up pretty bad and the trailer gate got bent.


Doug and Suzanne Southen.


Eric Southen behind the pack horse, which I was leading.


Marc Southen and my mom on the trail.


There's still snow up here - in the middle of July.


One of two bearboxes at the camp... All food and stuff must be locked in here.


We had a lot of fun, after lunch, we went out for another short ride past the camp into the range where my parents go hunting. We saw a herd of Elk(too far away for a good picture), and lots of beautiful country. My dad says that these pictures don't give a very accurate depiction of Wyoming - they've had a lot more rain than normal and it's harly ever as green as it is now. There are colorful wildflowers everywhere.

We had moose steak, rice, and potatoes for dinner. My dad brought a LOT of moose steak and we ended up having moose for dinner, then for breakfast and lunch the next day.

Packing up for the trip back out. This is the unloaded pack saddle on Sass.


The loaded pack with a tarp over everything - it was raining a bit.


My dad on Lynn carying the gun and leading the pack horses. This is real western riding. This is what I looked like the day before, except that I was riding Taco(he's the first packhorse in this picture) and leading Lynn with a pack - I even had the gun(we just had the gun for bear protection 'cause there are bears in this area). Taco and Sass are experienced packhorses, but are good riding horses as well. Taco doesn't take a bit, so I had ridden him with a hackamore.

My Mom's pony, Mayflower, had a new colt sometime last night or yesterday. The father is my mom's black gelding (recently a stallion).

Here are some pictures.

My brother John had to fly home today, so I drove him the 270 miles to Salt Lake City. That's a very nice drive. The scenery along the way is spectacular. Especially just East of SLC in the mountain passes. I wish I'd have taken the camera. On the way down, John and I saw what we think are pelicans... didn't know that pelicans live in Wyoming, but that's sure what they looked like. Maybe I'll drive out there some day to see if I can get some pictures of them. It'd take me a couple of hours to get there and back.

Here are some pictures of the drive to Grey Bull.
I made these pretty small and compressed, but they still may take a while to load on a dialup connection. If anyone wants higher quality copies, let me know.

Road construction in the canyon


A huge rock in the river bed.


I took out some of the pics that were here. They weren't as good. And I cropped the pics so they don't overflow the post column.

Well, my parents haven't lived here for a year yet, but they've already decided to move again. They're moving to Grey Bull, Wyoming about 4 hours from here. I guess I know where I get my urge to roam (I spent a year in Alaska, but lived in 3 different place all throughout the state - and it's a big one).

We took a load of stuff out there today. They aren't moving for a few months yet, but they want to get as much stuff out there as possible so they don't have as much to move when they do move. They're just putting all the stuff into a shed maybe into the basement of the new house.

The new property contains the main house, a rental house, and a veterinary practice. The vet is moving to her parents ranch in some other state and my dad wants to get back into the practice, so it's a perfect deal. The house is bigger than the one they're in now and includes more property. Plus they'll have income from the rental house.

It's a nice 4 hour drive around the mountains and through some canyons. If you look up Cora, WY and Grey Bull, WY on a map, you can see that you have to drive around some big mountains one way or the other. Going North and then East, you pass through Yellowstone, which is pretty slow because of all the tourists and stuff. We went the other way, but it's all beautiful country. We went through some pretty cool tunnels in the canyon and passed the world's largest mineral hotspring at Thermopolis.

I'll put up some pictures tomorrow. It's getting late and I don't want to take the time to resize them right now.

I'm in Wyoming now. It took me 2 days to drive from the Twin Cities area. I drove my new(to me) Honda Accord. And I passed 2 pretty bad car accidents on the first day.

My new car is great. It leaks a little oil, but I think that it's in the line, not in the engine so it shouldn't be too difficult to fix. It'd be nice if the A/C worked, but I'll manage without it until I can get it repaired. The cruise control works great. I used it the whole way out here. This car is much more pleasant for long drives than my old Ford Aspire(deathtrap).

The first wreck that I passed was a car that had been on fire. By the time I got to it, the fire department already had it put out and I think they got everyone out safely. But the car was completely burned. From the back of the rear door to the front bumper, all the paint was burned off and it was all just scorched metal. The trunk area was unburned so I could see that it had been white.

The second wreck was a car that had driven off the highway, down a bank, and run into some large posts. Traffic was at a dead stop for 45 minutes or so as the police and emergency crews got people out. The ambulance had been there and left while traffic was stopped - I saw it leaving down the other side of the highway.

Day 2 was pretty uneventful. I only stopped for gas. I'd gotten a pair of sunglasses, but accidentally shut them in the hood after checking my oil. They were completely crushed. But I'd actually gotten 2 pairs, so I still had another one.

I haven't done much here in WY yet except for helping my Dad with his computer equipment. I'll add posts while I'm here about anything exciting that happens.

I've been driving around in a '95 Ford Aspire. It's not a bad car, but it's small and very underpowered. The level of road noise while driving down the highway is unbelievable. I have to have the radio practially on full-blast just to hear it. The muffler is loud and needs to be fixed, but it's only noticeable at lower speeds because the road noise drowns it out. The car has no sound dampening features at all. It's a little metal box on wheels. The tires are really small and the thing gets blown around on the road a lot.

I take long (3+ hours) trips quite often and this car is just not very nice for such trips. I've been thinking for a long time that I need to get a different car, but couldn't afford to.

But a friend was selling his '92 Honda Accord which has a few issues, but nothing major. The price was so low that I couldn't pass it up. I had to borrow the money from my dad, but I think I'll have this car for a long time - I thought that about the Toyota Tercel that I had a few years back until someone wrecked it for me. But this Honda is even better than the Toyota - but a little older and more mileage. The A/C is broken, but I plan on getting it fixed shortly after I pay my dad back and stuff.