Thanksgiving Moose

We had Thanksgiving dinner up at the Lodge and for the first time in several years, we had almost every body there.  We were only short one person.  Monster decided to spend Thanksgiving with his other grandmother (again).

It sort of sucked that he wasn't there, but on the other hand, he was throwing a world class temper tantrum and I was happy to not have to put up with his attitude.  Sad, but true. 

Since we had 95% of the family there, Mom wanted a picture will all million of us.  That was a chore and a half to herd everyone into one spot and keep them from running off.  Xanax might have been in order, but we managed.

Back row: Beel, Jay, Mr. Nebalee, Junior, Digger
Middle-ish row: Mom, Nebalee, Autobot, Mrs Junior
Second middle-ish row: Me, Kyzzer, T, The Boy
All the rest: Ashinator, Asset, Great-grandma Nita, Mrs Deejo, Deejo, The Girl
And Sophie (can't forget her)

We ate until we were sick (of course) and parted ways.  On the way down, just a handful of miles from the Lodge we saw a moose!  He was just meandering down the side of the cliff.  Jay flipped the car around so we could attempt to get pictures, but we had turned our phones off to save the batteries.

I couldn't get the damn things to power up fast enough to suit me, but finally, I was able to get out of the car and ease up an incline to snap a couple of pictures.  Being cell phone pictures, they suck, but I finally got to see a moose up-close and personal (but not too up-close).  I was maybe 150 feet from them, though it looks much farther in the pictures.  Stoopid cell phones.  We saw two moose.  They looked like a cow/calf pair.

Road Trip 7/16/2011

The day before my birthday, RCC and I got a wild hair and decided to load up in Ripley for a road trip.  It was a good choice, as I finally got to see a moose.  Nebalee had told us that the Poudre River was running high and that we needed to see it before it receded.  That was our excuse, but once we got on the road, we decided to just keep going all the way to Walden, down to Grand Lake, and across Trail Ridge Road.  It took us six hours, but just for you here it is in 5:56.

39 Years, 364 Days

That's how long it took me to see a moose.

I was beginning to think that I was moose repellant. It's a long story, but the only "moose" I've seen was up in Yellowstone and that one doesn't count.

Yesterday, RCC and I went on an impromptu road trip up over Trail Ridge Road and I *finally* got to see my first moose.  A cow with twin calves.  We got some lousy pictures...

Then we got in the car and drove a half a mile deeper into the park and saw this cow/calf pair...

RCC is going to do some photo magic so that they are easier to see, but there are two real, live (non-bison) moose.  Yay, me!

TST: The Moose

It's that time again!  Time to dust off the memory banks and put your favorite stories up for everyone to laugh at you like the freak you are enjoy.  So head on over to Rachel and Mr. Daddy's to link up and join in the fun.

I've grown up in Colorado.  Lived here my whole life.  Never seen a darn moose.  Tourists come here, they see moose.  I go to where the moose are supposed to be - no moose.  I have to see a real, live, honest-to-God moose before I die.  I simply must.

Several years ago, my friend Angelina and I went through Yellowstone on our way to go see her husband who was working in Washington.  I'm getting excited.  There are moose in Yellowstone.  The moose won't come to me in Colorado, so I'll go to them in Yellowstone.  It's a sound plan, no?

We only had a couple of hours in Yellowstone before we had to hit the road, so we stopped at Old Faithful to look around.  I had my camera out and was taking pictures.  Mostly of bison, because, well, let's face it, there are more bison than humans in Yellowstone.

I was squatted down, taking pictures, when all of a sudden I hear, "A Moose!"  Remember how I really, really wanted to see a moose?  And how I've never seen one?  Yeah, I was pretty excited.  I jumped up, camera ready, to snap a picture of the elusive moose.

I looked around frantically.  But I didn't see a moose.  Now, I've heard they're big critters.  Hard to miss when they're standing up.  But I didn't see one.  What I do see is Angelina barely able to hold her sh*t together.  She's laughing so hard that her face is red from trying to hold it in.  She gestures toward the tourist, who is pointing at the "moose"...

I looked at Angelina and said, "My public school education has failed me again!  I would have sworn that we were looking at bison."  (Okay, I had to add that last part just to tie in with Mr. Daddy's school theme, but I really did say that.  Really.)