What the Hell is it?

 Sharon and I had a great time on our trip today.  One of the places she and I wanted to go was Vulture Mine.  That place was awesome.  You pay $10 and walk around the entire mine on a self guided tour.  We were able to go inside many of the deteriorating buildings, but some had fences around them.  I took tons of pictures and will be sharing them with you in the next couple of posts.  There was one picture that I wanted to share with you now; the one of Sharon, Marty, and myself.  Marty is the owner and was featured on the GA episode at the Vulture Mine giving the boys a tour and interview.  In the picture featured below, there is a dark form almost covering me.  The photo taken right before and after were clear.  I also will post them.
Sharon and I went into debunking mode and tried everything we could to explain what it might be.  We did the hair, strap and string test but none of which looked like the form in the picture.  If it was any of them, the image would have been seen from the top to the bottom of the picture but this image was just in the middle.  So I ask, what the hell is it?  I'm thinking that perhaps it was the spirit of one of the many souls that were buried in the grounds of the mine and wanted to be in our picture.

before

after

the hair is barely visible

a string

camera strap

Click on picture to enlarge. You will note that the image does not go to the top of the picture and that the "V" in Vulture Mine is slightly visible. Also note that the color changes from a black to a brownish color. It is not a camera strap. We tried that experiment and they didn't look the same. This image is free-floating.

Where Were You?

(azcentral.com) "CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Twenty-five years ago, seven astronauts died aboard space shuttle Challenger when it exploded shortly after liftoff.
NASA officials, families and former astronauts gathered Friday morning at an outdoor memorial at Florida's Kennedy Space Center to mark the somber anniversary.


The accident on Jan. 28, 1986 - just 73 seconds into flight - killed the Challenger crew, including schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe."

I was skiing at Sunrise Ski Resort in Arizona when our friend banged on our door, told us to turn on the TV, and that the Shuttle exploded.  We just sat there staring at the TV in disbelief.  I have no idea how long we were fixated on what we were seeing on the TV before going about our day and back to skiing.

Pictures Around the Ranch

Where our room was located.

Name of room we stayed in.

The town kitty.

Above the Saloon door.

The lobby and sitting area in the Saloon.

The view of town from the lake.

Inside the general store.

Montana Wilderness and Ice Fishing

Our second full day was going to start with a snowmobile trainee class and then a two and a half hour trek through the woods.  After my hubs talk with another couple that did this and they were very sore from all the riding, we decided to back out and do the wilderness trek instead.

Montana in the winter is absolutely beautiful.  Snow is everywhere which looked like white frosting on the ground.  The wilderness trek consisted of a tour around the ranch in a van and then a half mile hike near the river.  We saw all the ranch's black Angus, long horns and horses.  In the summer, the cattle is moved from one place to another by guests like in the movie "City Slickers".  The place is huge (I forget exactly how many acres), and it consists of private living areas, barns for all the animals, the western village, housing for employees, lots of forest areas, and many other breathtaking views.

Look, a deer!

Ok, this is a real deer, Bambi.

I would hate to see the beaver that did this!

After lunch we had ice fishing scheduled.  This was something else we never did before and wanted to try.  The lake was very close to the town and took us just a couple of minutes to get there.  On the frozen lake was three fishing huts which had four holes drilled into the ice, a bucket for each to sit on, a fishing pole, heater and an employee there to help you along.  After an hour of seeing the fish breeze by and nudge our bait, we had no luck at all.  The fish must have been full from all the food they ate in the morning and were not interested in our bait.

Zip Lines and Dog Sleds

The ranch had plans for us to spend the two whole days there enjoying some of their activities.  We had a list of things to chose from, and then they picked from our list.  If you didn't like what they picked for you, they were happy to make the change.  Our first day consist of an Adventure Trek in the morning and dog sledding in the afternoon.

After breakfast, we went to the Livery to get our ski bibs and to be driven to the building where the adventure trek would begin.  This trek consists of hiking and riding down 9 zip lines with the longest one over 2,000 feet.  After being fitted with the zip gear, our guides took us to a small line to give us a quick lesson on how to ride the lines.  He had to adjust my ropes because my arms are a bit short and I couldn't keep it straight.  After the 8 of us did a practice run, it was time to fly, and fly we did.  It was amazing, the ride and the scenery.  After doing 6 zip lines we took a break.  I have come to the conclusion that trying to undress in a port-a-potty while it was moving was a much tougher task than the zip lines themselves.  We had three more lines left with the longest one second.  Unfortunately, I stopped short on the next line and the guide had to rescue me.  The poor dear was out of breath, but he managed to get me in.  And then it was time for the big zip line.  I was so nervous to ride it but this was my favorite.  I gave out a big "yahoo" while enjoying the scenery, which was beautiful.  The zip line was a frickin' blast and I am glad that we decided to do it.

After lunch, we went back to the Livery to get ski bibs again to go dog sledding.  We took a ride to the area where the dogs were kept and met up with our guide.  After a quick lesson on what to do, I decided being the rider and taking pictures was best for me.  Gary, along with our guide, drove the sled.  We had so much fun.  My only worry was tipping over and a dog's piss hitting me in the face.  Yep, those dogs can pee on the run.  At one point my hubby flew off the sled before it almost tipped and landed in a snow bank.  He was fine, hopped back on and away we went.  The guide made sure the dogs were rested several times along the route.  At one point we had to stop because there was a porcupine crossing the road ahead of us.  It was a huge beast that moved so slowly.  We didn't want our dogs to get a whiff of him because they would run off the road after it with us following behind.  That wouldn't have been very pretty.  After the porcupine got far enough away from us, we were able to resume.  Most of our dogs turned to check out the fat critter.  We knew they wanted to chase it down but thankfully then didn't.  We got back to the beginning and got to pet the dogs before heading back to the ranch.

Caution: porcupine crossing!

Crazy Mountain Ranch

The past four days I haven't been home but freezing my butt off in Montana.  Actually the first and fourth days were spent in airports.  My hubby won a trip for two to the Marlboro Ranch (Crazy Mountain Ranch) which is an hour from Bozeman, Montana.  Go figure that his long-time bad habit of smoking would pay off in such a great way.  When he got the exciting news in a Fedex box, our first thought was that it was a scam.  I told him that when you call the number provided and they ask for money, it's a scam and hang up!  That never happened.  It was the real deal, an all expense paid trip for two courtesy of Marlboro.  It paid off entering their many contests.

By the time we arrived in Bozeman on Sunday, it was in the evening.  We were greeted by some of the ranch staff who ushered the group of us who arrived from Salt Lake City to a bus.  We missed out on the beautiful Montana scenery on the hour long trip from the airport to the ranch because it was dark.  After we arrived, one of their guest service reps took us to get fitted for bibs to be ready for the activities we signed up for.  Right afterwards, she took us to our room.  The room was decorated in a western theme with no TV or cell service.  It had a claw tub in the bathroom and two single beds.  We decided that we wanted our own beds (can you tell we have been married almost 30 years, lol).  On each bed was a bunch of gifts for the contest winner and guest.  WOW, we got lots of winter wear, backpack, camera, and a few smaller items.  We were blown away by all the freebies and how well we were treated so far.  After changing putting on our new snow boots and parka, we headed out to get dinner.

We were surprised to see that the ranch, which is a working ranch, was laid out like a small western town.  Our room was in the bank.  We headed to the saloon, which was where the dining hall was located.  We sat with other couples from different parts of the country.  Like us, they thought it was a scam too.  We all agreed that making the phone call to verify the trip was the best thing we did.  We ate, mixed and mingled, and then went back to our room and get a good nights sleep.  We had events planned for the next day.  Those will be on my next couple posts along with tons of pictures.  Meanwhile, here is a video I did of us walking from our room to the saloon.  It will give you an idea of what the place looked like.