#63 Bubba Goes West!

Summary

Podcast Summary: Bubba on the Lake – Episode #63 "Bubba Goes West!"

Host: Bill "Bubba" Bussey
Guest: Betty Lou Bussey
Date: June 25, 2026
Theme: Bubba and Betty’s Epic Nine-Day Bus Tour Across Big Sky Country

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Overview

In this special episode, host Bill "Bubba" Bussey (formerly of The Rick & Bubba Show) and his wife Betty Lou take listeners on a vivid day-by-day journey through their bucket-list, nine-day guided bus tour of the American West. The trip, facilitated by Caravan Tours (no sponsorship involved), covers remarkable American landmarks and breathtaking geography, including Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial, Devil's Tower, Little Bighorn, Yellowstone National Park, the Grand Tetons, Jackson Hole, Salt Lake City, and more. The episode is both a travelogue and a heartfelt reflection on overcoming personal trials, making memories, and marveling at natural wonders.

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Main Themes & Purpose

• Personal Bucket List Fulfillment: Bubba shares how a past cancer diagnosis inspired him to create and tackle a bucket list (04:01).
• Travel Insights and Commentary: Bubba and Betty Lou offer candid, funny, and practical takes on group travel, flights, accommodations, and activities.
• History & Geography: Each landmark is met with background stories, historical context, and personal responses.
• Gratitude and Mindset: The episode balances lighthearted humor with moments of sincere emotion, awe, and appreciation for life.

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Key Discussion Points

1. Pre-Trip Reflections & Motivation

Timestamps: 04:01 – 08:24

• Bubba recounts his cancer diagnosis discovered during a gallbladder attack (“it was a God thing that he [the doctor] was there..." – Bubba, 02:27), and how the support of listeners got him through.
• The trip “out west” became a high-priority bucket list goal during recovery.

"If I survive this, I need to make a list of things that I want to do...This trip to Big sky country was right there at the top." – Bubba (06:32).

2. Flights, Rapid City & First Impressions

Timestamps: 11:02 – 16:10

• The convoluted Birmingham-Detroit-Minneapolis-Rapid City flight path ("the tour of the NFC North!" – Bubba, 12:48).
• Positive review of Hotel Rushmore ("very western themed...nice place...hidden gem" – Betty Lou, 13:52).
• Praise for local restaurants, especially Murphy’s Pub and an unnamed Mexican place.

3. The Group & Tour Structure

Timestamps: 15:31 – 17:00

• 44 travelers from across the U.S., mostly strangers who become friends.
• Tour led by affable Jim “Machine Gun” Kelly and driver Dennis.
• “A1 bus” with comfortable seats and enjoyable company.

4. The Badlands National Park

Timestamps: 17:10 – 20:51

• Drive through National Grasslands to the Badlands.

“It was absolutely beautiful... like a field, but if there’s ever a tear...it makes its mark.” – Bubba (18:39)

• Betty Lou’s “low to no expectations” turned into awe at the landscape.
• Volcanic ash, eroded cliffs, unusual dryness and wind, and cool weather despite the sun.

5. Wall Drug

Timestamps: 21:16 – 22:57

• Famous roadside stop: "block long...everything under the sun."
• Known for donuts, five-cent coffee, and Depression-era origins.

6. Mount Rushmore

Timestamps: 23:53 – 25:29

• Surprised by the scale and impact:

“I will say this, it is absolutely breathtaking.” – Bubba (24:07)

• “The backdrop was just…breathtaking.” – Betty Lou (24:15)
• Strong visitor center, informative film, authenticity of unfinished elements.

7. Crazy Horse Memorial

Timestamps: 25:50 – 31:19

• Most travelers unfamiliar beforehand.
• History: Lakota leader Crazy Horse, monument much larger than Mount Rushmore but still unfinished.
• Funded privately by the family for independence ("they will not take any government money" – Betty Lou, 28:15).
• Memorable story of Crazy Horse’s reply: "It's where my people are dead and buried is my land." (29:06)
• Native dance demonstrations and local artifacts add authenticity and depth.

8. Wildlife & Local Color

Timestamps: 31:19 – 32:10

• Bison and pronghorn antelope are everywhere; jokes about “bison fatigue.”

9. Devil’s Tower & Sturgis

Timestamps: 34:11 – 37:31

• Movie tie-in: Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
• Native American sacred site, climbing is controversial/seasonal.

"It just sticks right out like nobody’s business." – Bubba (35:02)

• Drive by Sturgis, the biker mecca.

10. Little Bighorn & Crow Nation

Timestamps: 37:31 – 43:53

• Battlefield closed for renovations, but museums open.
• Crow Nation’s cooperative history with the U.S. government results in the largest reservation in North America.
• History of Custer’s Last Stand, Sioux leadership, and consequences for indigenous people.

“It was a cluster for Custer.” – Betty Lou (39:59)
“We won the battle but lost the war.” – Bubba (40:20)

11. Altitude, Weather, and the Bus Experience

Timestamps: 44:12 – 45:29

• High altitudes (up to 9,000 ft) bring breathlessness for some.
• Dry, windy, and cooler than expected: “It was 93 degrees...I carried a jacket...there was no humidity, and it was actually chilly.” – Bubba (43:53)

12. Yellowstone National Park (Two-Day Segment)

Timestamps: 45:54 – 54:51, 56:40 – 57:16

• Fears of it being overhyped are put to rest: “Not a bit. Lived up to every expectation.”
• Geysers (especially Old Faithful and the much larger Fountain Geyser), hot springs, waterfalls.
• Photography and wildlife (elk, bison), “It’s a super volcano…when it goes up again, it is going to be devastating…” (47:58)
• Boardwalk warnings and respect for the land.
• "If I just had to say, one high watermark of an excellent trip, it was seeing fountain go off because it was impressive." – Bubba (52:50)

13. Grand Tetons & Jackson Lake Lodge

Timestamps: 57:16 – 63:45

• Grand Teton range’s name origin (“clearly two humps," named by French trappers – 58:42); tour guide’s discomfort with the risqué explanation.
• Highlight of walking into Jackson Lake Lodge: “It’s like you’re walking into the sanctuary of a church...lady playing a grand piano and she was playing Faithful by Journey...I just teared up..." – Bubba (63:02)
• Wildlife: bison, moose.
• No TV, “cabin life,” and bear warnings.
• Weather surprises (accidentally turning on heat leads to “sauna” in their room).

14. Snake River Rafting

Timestamps: 63:45 – 67:20

• Leisurely (not whitewater!) group rafting; fun, camaraderie, and wildlife ("bald eagles, hawks").
• “Probably the surprise fun event of the whole thing for me.” – Bubba (66:10)
• Playful banter about falling overboard and raft safety.

15. Jackson Hole & Salt Lake City

Timestamps: 67:23 – 74:35

• Jackson Hole: compared to “Gatlinburg West,” famous for burgers (The “Rodeo Clown”).
• Salt Lake City: impressions of LDS/Mormon history, temples, tabernacles, tidy appearance, business acumen, and cultural differences.

“If Salt Lake City was a fast food, they’d be Chick fil a.” – Bubba (73:53)

16. Practical Travel Tips & Reflections

Timestamps: 75:07 – 83:28

• Why they avoided Atlanta and preferred connecting via Detroit.
• Thoughts on knee surgery’s impact and travel accessibility.
• Caravan Tours highly recommended for those wanting a stress-free, guided experience.
• A shout-out to new friends made on the trip from various states.

17. Wrap-Up Thoughts

Timestamps: 81:11 – 86:24

• June is a great time; July is too packed for tours.
• Weather can be unpredictable: “A week or two before us, it snows. You just never know.”
• Even with a packed tour, Yellowstone and the Tetons can’t be oversold.
• Bubba and Betty encourage listeners to take the trip themselves, however they can.

“Trip A plus. If you get a chance to go to big sky country...go see it. You will not be disappointed.” – Bubba (86:09)

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• Personal Prayer and Radio Community:

  “I feel like I was being bathed in prayer from the radio audience...I definitely felt better. And I think that’s when the show came on the air and the guys were telling everybody an update, and so many prayer warriors in that audience were praying for me. And I felt it.” – Bubba (05:01)

• On Wall Drug:

  “Wall Drug is now a block long and I mean a full block like a football field block. And they have everything under the sun in there.” – Bubba (22:41)

• At Mount Rushmore:

  “It was absolutely breathtaking.” – Bubba (24:07) “It was just…surreal standing there, looking at that…” – Betty Lou (24:15)

• Crazy Horse's Quip:

  “Where’s your land now, Crazy Horse?”
  “It’s where my people are dead and buried is my land.” – Bubba (29:06)

• About Yellowstone's Volcanic Danger:

  “When it goes up again, it is going to be devastating to North America.” – Bubba (47:58)

• On Grand Teton Scenery:

  “It is just breathtaking mountains. It has snow on the top of it still...there was a lady playing a grand piano and she was playing Faithful by Journey...I just teared up. It was just the beauty and the magnitude of it is just unbelievable.” – Bubba (63:02)

• On the Tour Experience:

  “We had a great time. I would probably book with [Caravan Tours] again…Wouldn’t hurt my feelings at all to go and stay a week at the Grand Tetons.” – Bubba (79:08, 82:48)

• Final Encouragement:

  “If you get a chance to go to big sky country, Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone, all that we talked about, go see it. You will not be disappointed.” – Bubba (86:09)

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Episode Structure & Important Timestamps

| Time | Segment / Topic | |----------|-----------------------------------------------------| | 01:10 | Opening, trip motivation & cancer journey | | 10:54 | Start of trip recap (arrival, Rapid City) | | 17:10 | Badlands National Park | | 21:16 | Wall Drug & Rapid City specifics | | 23:53 | Mount Rushmore & Crazy Horse | | 34:11 | Devils Tower & Sturgis | | 37:31 | Little Bighorn & Crow Nation | | 45:54 | Yellowstone Days 1 & 2 | | 57:16 | Grand Tetons, Jackson Lake Lodge, wildlife | | 63:45 | Snake River rafting | | 67:23 | Jackson Hole & Salt Lake City | | 75:07 | Reflection on travel (flight routes, accessibility) | | 81:11 | Weather, best months, and closing advice | | 86:09 | Final thoughts, shout-outs, encouragement |

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Episode Tone and Style

• Warm, conversational, and humorous. Bubba’s signature blend of Southern charm, dad jokes, and storytelling is ever-present, with Betty Lou providing quick-witted asides and keeping the show lively.
• Earnest and relatable. The episode is sincere in its appreciation for life, nature, and the kindness of others, never shying from the hard stuff but always returning to gratitude and fun.

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For Listeners Who Haven’t Tuned In

This episode is a comprehensive, heartfelt, and often hilarious travel story that’ll suit anyone interested in the West, bus tours, national parks, or simply the value of living life to the fullest. With practical tips, emotional resonance, and a strong sense of place, Bubba and Betty Lou make you feel like a passenger on the bus—and on a bigger journey through triumph, landscapes, and simple joys.

Don’t miss their recommendations for when and how to go, what to expect, and how to keep your sense of humor—no matter how many bison cross your path!

Transcript

[Announcer]

This podcast is brought to you in

[Bubba]

part by Russell Lands Coke Buffalo Wild Wings, Central State Bank, Dr. Thomas Dudney, Sunrise Docks, Bice Motors, the Green Monster Fishing Lights.

[Announcer]

Now back to Bubba on the Lake.

[Theme Song Singer]

Beat U double B A on the lake hey wishing I could listen to the show every day hey gotta hear what Bubba and his buddies gott on B U double B A on the lake in the mellow yellow studio putting on a show Betty say what she always on the go we got hunter bus sitting at master control don't wanna miss a moment cause Bubba's got the flow B U double B A on the lake hey wishing I could listen to the show every day hey gotta hear what Bubba and his buddies gotta say on B U B A on the lake Hey B U B A Hey B U.

[Bubba]

On the lake hello again friends, neighbors and associates everywhere. I am your semi retired, mostly washed up host, formerly of the Rick and Bubba show and now your host of Bubba on the Lake, also known as the people's Podcast. We're broadcasting and podcasting from the Meliella studio. Our website is bub on the lake.com always. You can reach me via email [e-mail] and of course our comment line 308 Big Lake. 308 Big Lake. That's 308-244-5253. Don't forget to subscribe, turn on notifications. We don't you to miss anything from the show and also follow us on social media. Well, we got a special podcast for you. This was is entitled Bubba goes West. We took a tour out west, Big sky country bucket list items. And I want to tell you a little bit about that with Caravan tours. Jim Kelly was our tour guide. Dennis was our bus driver. I want to be perfectly clear, there was no paid representation or sponsorship of this. We bought the tour just like anybody else would and went on it. No promotional consideration. But we wanted to tell you what a great time we had. Betty's going to be joining me and we'll recap our nine day journey out west. And I was going to do some social media posting but I had a rare very strange phone problem that was not allowing me to get on social media. And I'll talk about that maybe in the podcast coming up. But we wanted you to know about it. Speaking of things that we always enjoy, Russell Lands is a proud sponsor of the podcast here. And you know they have a great website, Russelllands.com they also have an app, you can find out anything going on around Lake Martin. That's where we're based out of. And we have neighbors that come in from Atlanta, from Montgomery, from Mobile. We even have some from Louisiana that come in from time to time. And it's just such a big lake with so much going on. And you need to have their website to know about it. Friday on the Green, very popular. You need to see who is performing. Bring your lawn chair, bring your bug spray. Your dog is welcome if they're on a leash. And it is a great time. Everybody enjoys that. You can find out about that and everything else that Russell Lance has going [e-mail] well, folks, I want to tell you this. This trip was something that I have wanted to do for almost four years. Many of you remember during the radio show I was diagnosed with liver cancer and they actually found the tumor while I was in the ER having a gallbladder attack. And I had my gallbladder removed. That went very smooth. Have not had any problems from that. Matter of fact, better than I used to be. And but we were very fortunate because the doctor on call that night, he usually did not work the er, but he was letting another doctor get off to go see his son play baseball. And we were just, it was a God thing that he was there because he was an expert in liver and pancreatic cancer and he found a tumor on my liver. They kind of told me the spill about it all and that I had to get it taken out as soon as possible. I will tell you, it was the hardest thing to do to walk back into the hospital feeling as good as I did. It was a bright, sunny day. I'll never forget it. You know, when you go in and you feel like you've got a spear stuck in your side, you don't care what they do. You just want to get better. You know, cut me open, take it out, do whatever, stab me, poke me, just get rid of this pain. But when you feel great and you still got the stitches from your first surgery and you go in and they tell you they're going to have to cut you open again and they're going to take this mass out and they're going to try to get good margins around it and then they're going to send it to get a path report and the path report is going to tell us everything we need to know. Was this a cancer cell of the liver or did your liver catch a cancer cell that came from somewhere else? And it was going to take a little bit of time to get this pass report back. But I Remember laying in the hospital recovering from the liver surgery, which was worse than the gallbladder surgery, and you don't know if you are going to live or die. You don't know if you have cancer in other parts of your body and it has spread to your liver or you just had a tumor in your liver. You don't know if you're facing chemotherapy, immunotherapy, radiation. You just don't know. And the weight is rather agonizing. I will tell you, we had great comfort during that time. I feel like I was being bathed in prayer from the radio audience. And I told Betty, I said, no matter how I felt at 6 o' clock every morning, I definitely felt better. And I think that's when the show came on the air and the guys were telling everybody an update, and so many prayer warriors in that audience were praying for me. And I felt it. I mean, I absolutely felt it at 6 o'. Clock. It's just like you, you got a shot of something and you just felt better. And while we didn't know, we felt confident that, you know, God was in charge and he would lead us in the way that we needed to be led. But as I was laying there in the bed, I thought, you know, I don't have a bucket list. If I get out of this, if I survive this, I need to make a list of things that I want to do, places I want to go. There was a few people I wanted to reconnect with and I kind of made a list and I thought, if we can, can survive this, I want to work that list. And this trip to Big sky country was right there at the top. And some of the places we went, some of the things we've seen, just breathtakingly beautiful. Would love to go again, honestly, but we'll break that down. It's a nine day tour and this is going to be a rather long podcast. So hang in there with us. Betty will join me next segment and we will hit the road with Caravan tours. So thank you again. We really appreciate you being a part of Bubba on the Lake and we're very excited to give you this presentation. You know, we've always said it's about people, places and perspectives and today we're going to cover places. We'll be right back in just a minute. Thanks for being a part of Bubba on the Lake.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

One, two, three.

[Announcer]

We'll be right back.

[Commercial Voice]

What a matchup. We've got, folks. Just non stop action. The energy is electric and the fans are all in an intense game. Like this calls for a Coca Cola. Ah, crisp and refreshing. That's a game changer. Yeah, that taste scores every time. And just like that, they're back at it. Passionate fans in an ice cold Coca Cola. Now that's a winning combo. No matter the team, no matter the sport. Everyone knows fan work is thirsty work. Enjoy a Coca Cola.

[Announcer]

You know one thing I love about Buffalo Wild Wings? You can get wings with any of their 26 sauces and dry rubs for takeout and delivery. That's like bringing an entire B dubs home with you, which you can't do. I tried. I've knocked down so many walls only to then be told to halt construction because I'm not zoned to be a sports bar. Kind of just looks like a big pergola or something. Because of the lack of walls, at least these 26 sauces and dry rubs are available to go. Buffalo Wild Wings, let's go, sports bar.

[Bubba]

Dr. Dudney has been my dentist for about 20 years. He does a great job taking care of my teeth, making sure my cavities are good, cleaning my teeth, and also adding veneers to my smile, which was a game changer. Now Dr. Dudney and his friendly staff can do the same for you. I ask you to give them a chance. Just talk to them. No cost. Just make an appointment, see what you need. See if you can have a better smile and feel better about yourself today. Give them a call at 205-663-6545 or tedney.com foreign. Well, we're back, folks, and we are ready to break down our nine day trip out west. Here on the podcast that is lovingly called Bubba Goes West, I'm joined by my traveling partner, Betty Lou Bussey. Betty, how are you, babe?

[Betty Lou Bussey]

I'm doing great. I got my cowboy hat on over here and my chaps. We went out west. We're doing good.

[Bubba]

Well, the best way to do this is just go in chronological order. And day one, we traveled to Rapid City, South Dakota. Yep, that's. That's airport rap. Rap. And you know that. That was our longest stay. We stayed three nights there. And Rapid City is. It's not easy to get to.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

No, it's really not. I accused you of having a mini stroke when you actually booked these flights.

[Bubba]

Right.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Because somehow or another, we started out in Birmingham, went to Michigan, went to Detroit, then we went to Minneapolis.

[Bubba]

Then we went to Minneapolis. Yes.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

And then we flew in to Rapid City, started it. We left here at the hour of 3am Something like that.

[Bubba]

And you're gonna bring.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah. And then we finally got there, what, around 4, 30, 5 o'? Clock?

[Bubba]

Yeah. I'm not completely sure what happened there because it was booked a while back, but. Oh, yeah, we were trying to avoid Atlanta just because you were apparently the cluster that it usually is over there. And we're just.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

We avoided it.

[Bubba]

I'll say that we're just about as close to the Atlanta airport as we are to Birmingham, but Birmingham is just so much smaller. It's a little easier to navigate. And you're going to have to. With Delta, you're going to have to connect flight somewhere.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Right.

[Bubba]

So I basically chose Detroit, which was closer to where we were going than Atlanta, because we didn't want to go through that.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

And somehow we got Minneapolis in the mix, though I don't know how that happened.

[Bubba]

We called it the tour of the NFC north for you football fans. We visited the lines and the Vikings on the way out to South Dakota. So we got there and we stayed at a hotel that was called the Rushmore. And it's an older hotel that has been redone. It's very nice, but it's. It's older.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah.

[Bubba]

And very western themed. Yeah. They don't have as many electrical plugs as we do, but I mean, it was.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

I mean, it was a very good amenities in there and all that other, you know, I thought it was good.

[Bubba]

Yeah, yeah, it was. It was very nice. But they didn't have enough electrical plugs. That was about it for those of us who, you know, have a lot of things to charge now. Yeah, that. That's kind of a drawback. Throw in a CPAP machine, you know, can get a little. Get a little. You have to get creative there a little bit. So. But. But a nice place. And it's right there in Rapid City, which is a very nice little town.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Oh, my God. It's a hidden gem, I call it. I had no idea Rapid City, South Dakota even existed until this trip. You know what I mean? I've never even. It was not on my radar, I'll say that.

[Bubba]

It's not a giant airport and you fly in there and, you know, they come to pick you up in a van and a trailer, covered trailer that they put your luggage in and. But the city itself is called the. What did they call it? The. The President City because on every street corner downtown they have a statue of a U.S. president.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah, that was pretty cool.

[Bubba]

That is cool.

[Commercial Voice]

Yeah.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Great restaurants. I mean, we had excellent food while we were there. Probably too much excellent Food.

[Bubba]

Yeah. Anyway, I stepped on the scale when I got back. I thought, how can you gain that much in that short amount of time?

[Betty Lou Bussey]

I, however, have not stepped on the scale yet. I'm gonna go ahead and work out a little bit, you know, next three or four days before I actually weigh. We'll see.

[Bubba]

Well, we would highly suggest and recommend Murphy's Pub.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah.

[Bubba]

Down the street.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah. Yeah, Murphy's Pub was good food.

[Bubba]

They had a real good Mexican place. Do you remember the name of it?

[Betty Lou Bussey]

No, I can't remember the Mexican. I didn't write it down. And then they also have a great. It may be the only Mexican place close to the. That hotel and also the Italian place close to the hotel. Really good.

[Bubba]

Yeah, it was across the street and kind of across. I guess we should have had the names of those ready.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah, I really didn't even. I don't think I wrote the names

[Bubba]

down or we'll look them up and mention them again toward the end of the. Of the podcast. So we get there and we have a little meeting and Jim Kelly, not the quarterback of the Buffalo Bills, who I lovingly nicknamed Machine Gun, and he was going to be our tour guide and Dennis the bus driver. Now, we had a. A1 bus that we were on.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

I mean, it was nice. It really was comfortable seats. We had a great group on the bus. I mean, it couldn't have been any better. We were, you know, really did.

[Bubba]

We had 44 people, I think, in our group to start with. And everybody was super nice.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

They really were. And we, I mean, we only had two people going with us that we knew, you know, and so the rest of them, I mean, the other 40 people, you know, total strangers till we met them, you know what I mean?

[Bubba]

But they were from Louisiana, Maryland, South Carolina, Florida, Michigan.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Had a Michigan couple.

[Bubba]

Yeah. So it was all over the country.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

It was.

[Bubba]

And all of them wanted to see out west.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yep.

[Bubba]

So the first morning, which is day two, we depart at 8:30am which means we had to get up and eat and be ready and get ready to go. And, you know, that doesn't sound real early, but it can be for some people who don't get up that early.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

We actually calling anymore. Well, we actually left before 8:30. That's just what it says on our little thing here. We actually left about 7:45.

[Bubba]

Well, we got the jump thanks to Jim. Don't call me Machine Gun Kelly. And we went to the National Grasslands, went through that on the way to the Badlands National Park. I really didn't know what to expect from the Badlands. I just, I knew it was like a lot of cliffs and hills and things, but it was absolutely beautiful. It was, I think what one of the astronauts, it may have been, Buzz Aldwin Aldrin referred to the moon as magnificent desolation. And I thought the same thing about the Badlands is huge. Huge.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

It is huge.

[Bubba]

You literally, as far as you can see and you know that's about 75 miles, 60 to 75 miles before the curve of the Earth takes over. Sorry for you, Flat Earth.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Well, I didn't know about all that, but the Badlands were, they really were. Just most of all, this trip was breathtaking to me. I went with very low to no expectations on this trip. I didn't look anything up. I just thought, I'm just going to go with it. This was one of the things on your bucket list. So I thought, well, I'm going to rule to see what we see, you know what I mean? So it really was, I mean, like I said, I had no expectations. It was really beautiful, you know, all of it scenery and all that.

[Bubba]

It's, it's many, many years of volcanic ash that is packed down and then grass grows on top of it. It looks like a field, but if there's ever a tear in that grass in that surface, dirt and water gets in there and starts eroding it. And it doesn't rain a lot out there, but when it does, it makes, it makes its mark.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah.

[Bubba]

And that ash just washes away.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yep.

[Bubba]

And you're left with these incredible mountains and hills that go up and down. And we posted some of the pictures online. One of them I went up on, and it's tiny little rocks and you roll, you slide in them very easy.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah, I was a little apprehensive about you climbing up that line, an embankment,

[Bubba]

and it had about a 300, 200 to 300 foot drop on the other side where it went down to a valley where a buffalo was growing. And, you know, so, you know, not, not losing your balance up there. And by the way, the wind is howling the whole time. If you don't like wind, the big sky country is not your place. You're going to get some win.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

You are.

[Bubba]

And we'll talk more about that. When we went to dinner one night, somebody had commented on one of the pictures I made with Andrew Jackson that it had to be fairly cold for me to be wearing a hoodie in the middle of June.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah.

[Bubba]

And you know what, though, it was not as cool as you think it would be temperature wise. But the humidity was 17%.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Oh, it was almost zero. Let's just say I have to get keratin treatments here in the south in the summer. Didn't need one out there, you know what I mean?

[Bubba]

So anyway, it, it was, I think drier than I've ever been.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah, it really was.

[Bubba]

And then you add in about a 25 to 30 mile an hour consistent wind blowing and you get cold. I mean it's cold when it's in the 80s and it was rather eye opening to see that. But I was very impressed with the Badlands.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Me too.

[Bubba]

A lot of, there's also a lot of fossils found there. There's a lot of research going on there. We got to actually see at the welcome center they actually have paleontologists who are working on fossils and you can watch them work on it. I mean they, they, they have a microscope and a little, you know, cleaning brush and drill and they're working on stuff and you can watch them do that. Really, really fascinating.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Like Rawson Friends.

[Bubba]

Yeah, exactly like Ross on Friends. So after we left the Badlands, we drove over to do you know, remember what city that Wall Drug was in?

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Was it not right there? I thought it was in that area or.

[Bubba]

Well it is but I don't remember the town, do you? Well another point we're going to have to check.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

So while drugstore it was really good. We had the ham, the hamburger. We had the hamburger. You had a shake. And then they have, they're known for their five cent coffee. One of our friends that was with us, David Shaw, had the coffee.

[Bubba]

Sure.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Let's see, what else did we do? We got, oh, the home that they're known for their homemade donuts that they do every day. So I got a donut, ate half of it, was going to take the rest with me and left it on the table, came back to get it and it was already cleaned up. I thought, well there you go, that's a sign from God that this five foot girl doesn't need the other half of that donut.

[Bubba]

You know, somebody might, I did. I don't know what happened to it. But Wall Drug is a famous location because of the family. They almost went broke back in the Depression. They, they ventured out into other things other than just drugs. And you can see that they have grown and they've taken over every available spot next to them.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

It was really cool.

[Bubba]

So Wall Drug is now a block long and I mean a full block like a football field block.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yep.

[Bubba]

And they have everything under the sun in there. I mean, they sell guns, they sell drugs, they sell food, they sell every trinket.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yep.

[Bubba]

Imaginable. And we'll have some more pictures from Wall Drug online as I get to those days, by the way, I was going to. And I may mentioned it earlier, I was going to start documenting this as we went, but I had some phone trouble and I couldn't get online. So that's one reason you're just now seeing some of that. We went back to Rapid City. We had some free time. That's one of the nights we went out to eat. And as you said, the Mexican was excellent.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

It really was. Yes, it was. And the wall was fun because we got to do all the pictures with all the president statues. It was really fun. That was a fun city. It really was.

[Bubba]

So day three, we get up and we leave again. Schedule for 8:30, but I believe we left a little earlier than we did.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

We left about 7:45 every day. And this pretty much 7:30.

[Bubba]

This was one that we have all seen pictures of.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Right.

[Bubba]

Mount Rushmore.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

I knew what to expect at Mount Rushmore, but I was not.

[Bubba]

I didn't know. I didn't know. I mean, I knew what it looked like in movies.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah.

[Bubba]

In pictures. But I had never seen it. And I will say this, it is absolutely breathtaking.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

It is. I mean, I think that was probably my favorite thing of the trip. Mount Rushmore. It was just so, I mean, surreal standing there, looking at that because we had perfect weather. The sky was blue with no clouds right above Mount Rushmore. That day. It was in. The backdrop was just. It was breathtaking.

[Bubba]

It really was all morning there. And we got to. And it's one of those attractions that have a lot of tourists come to it, but they. It's designed very well. They have an amphitheater right in front of the faces. Of course, we're talking about President Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln. And you learn about what they were going to do. They never finished it, by the way. And there's so many monuments like that. But they covered how they did this. They have an excellent visitor center there. They serve food. They have, again, all the trinkets and T shirts and hats you'd ever want. And they have a theater where they show a movie about the building of that.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

And the movie was good, I thought, too, it was well done.

[Bubba]

Yeah. The guy who did it, he died while it was being done. His son had to finish it.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Right.

[Bubba]

It's very, very interesting how it all came together.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

I Wish I could think of his name. It's hard to pronounce, but I can't remember the French. Yeah.

[Theme Song Singer]

Yeah.

[Bubba]

So it was, you know, it was really, really something. We did that in the morning, and then in the afternoon we went over to Crazy Horse. Now, Crazy Horse, I knew very little about.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

I knew nothing. Nothing about Crazy Horse. And I should have probably looked it up before we went and.

[Bubba]

Yeah.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Had a base knowledge, but I did not. I was doing good to get packed and all that before we left.

[Bubba]

You know, how about packing for nine days?

[Betty Lou Bussey]

How about that? Yeah. Not, of course, way too much, but

[Bubba]

anyway, I think that's the longest trip I've ever packed.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

That and maybe Hawaii years and years ago that I went to. Yeah.

[Bubba]

So Crazy Horse is the Lakota Indian leader. He was one of the military leaders at Little Bighorn that killed Custer.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Right.

[Bubba]

And so, you know, there's some, you know, a little bit of, I don't know, the right word to say. You're kind of concerned. Are we celebrating an outlaw here or what? You're also. You. Do you sense the. The situation that the Indians were in at the time where they had, you know, invaders coming in.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Right.

[Bubba]

And how they had to deal with that and what they did and didn't do. And, you know, again, all I could think of. It's a great, great example of control your borders.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah.

[Bubba]

And research and development. Just because Granddaddy did it that way, maybe we need to update a better way to do.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah, that's right.

[Bubba]

So. But it is a tremendous monument. I called it the Indian Mount Rushmore.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Well, it is kind of now, I know.

[Bubba]

Well, the Indians would probably be highly offended by that. But it came out. That's the way it started. They. I think they saw the money that Mount Rushmore was generating and said, look, we need. We need in on that. So they went and got a guy

[Betty Lou Bussey]

who had actually been worked on Mount Rushmore.

[Bubba]

Mount Rushmore. Thank you, Betty, for finishing my sentence. And, you know, this is better if we don't talk over each other, too. And. And. And they. He got kind of kicked off of that job over there and was told by that sculpture to go get your own project. So he went down the street and did. And he's building. He started carving Crazy Horse. And it's actually bigger than Mount Rushmore, but it's maybe a third of the way.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

It's incomplete and has been for years and years. And so. And it's only the family. Right. That's working on it.

[Bubba]

Well, now there's 18 people that work on it full time.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah.

[Bubba]

But they will not take any government money because they felt like if they did, the project would never get finished because they'd have to answer to the government. That's where Rushmore took the government money and got done and has an immaculate place.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Right.

[Bubba]

But I do understand their concern when you sell out to the government.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Okay. So to speak. Yeah.

[Bubba]

But we did get to see that and hear the story of that family that had worked on that. The. The original sculpture and his wife are buried on the site.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Right.

[Bubba]

Most of the kids. Some of the kids have died. Some of them are very old now. But grandkids are running out.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Grandkids are. Two of them were working on it that day, weren't they? I think. What?

[Bubba]

Well, they're. They're always there.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah.

[Bubba]

And like I say, they have 18 workers that work on it till 4 o' clock every day. And then for a price, you can go up to the face.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Right.

[Bubba]

A lot of people had their picture made up there. We were not there during that time, or I would have gone up there. I would have loved to see it.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

We got closer to it via school bus. You know, we took a little school

[Bubba]

bus we did down a dirt road.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah.

[Bubba]

It also was not a new school bus that the government. Yeah, it.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

It was pretty funny.

[Bubba]

But. But the whole thing is very interesting because they have. Their welcome center has a lot of Indian artifacts in it.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yes.

[Bubba]

And we saw a little movie about them and the family that did that. Crazy Horse was, as I said, one of their great military leaders of the Lakota Indians, which is part of the Sioux. There's three different groups make up the Sioux Indians. And his famous quote was, when he was apprehended in Nebraska, one of the soldiers, I think probably being smart with him, said, where's your land now, Crazy Horse. And his famous quote was, it's where my dead. Where my people are dead and buried is my land. And he's pointing to it. And the statue or the monument, when it's done, will have Crazy Horse pointing toward the Black Hills, sitting on top of his horse. So.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Right.

[Bubba]

It's a very impressive. And I have a picture that I'll post that shows you what the sculpture had. Had put together. What he was going to build is about a 1 and 1 34th.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah.

[Bubba]

You know, size difference, but it's. It's an exact position so you can see what they're doing in the background. So we'll post pretty good. You're online. But it's. It's something and, you know, makes you think how all of this went down and what, what, what happened and how it happened and, you know, where we are today. They, you know, it is kind of funny. They're all working together today for tourists.

[Theme Song Singer]

Yes.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah.

[Bubba]

I mean, one time at war. Now they're working together to bring tourists

[Betty Lou Bussey]

in right into that area.

[Bubba]

And Rushmore and the Crazy Horse people heavily promote each other, so they're like, come spend the day. See one, see both.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Right.

[Bubba]

But it was. It was good. You have both places have Lakota Indians that do native dances and all that kind of stuff. So you. There's a lot of history in this. A lot of history. And all along the way, both of these days, we saw a lot of wild.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Oh, yeah, bison. A lot of bison.

[Bubba]

We saw so many bison. By the last day, when people saw bison, we didn't take pictures.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

It's like, there's another bison. Yeah.

[Bubba]

And antelope. And we learned that it's not technically an antelope.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

What do they call it? I can't even long. Is it longhorn?

[Bubba]

Pronghorn.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Pronghorn, yeah. Which, you know, Pronghorn. Antelope, whatever.

[Bubba]

Well, you know the song where the deer.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah.

[Bubba]

You know, so.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

So we just went ahead and said, antelope, whatever. There's an antelope.

[Bubba]

Okay, we're gonna take a quick break. We'll be back. And we will recap day four as Bubba and Betty go west.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Where's Bubba?

[Commercial Voice]

I'll tell you where.

[Bubba]

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[Bubba]

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[Theme Song Singer]

Foreign.

[Bubba]

Well, we're back folks and we are touring the great West Big sky country. It was on my bucket list. And we're up to day four where we go to Little Big Horn and Billings, Montana. This was a little bit of a hike out there to that. But on the way, on the way to Little Bighorn, we got to see something that I. When I found out we were going to see this, I got very excited. It's called Devil's Tower. Does anybody remember Devil's Tower and what a famous movie that was in? Nah, nah nah nah nah. Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Richard Dreyfuss built a model of it in his den. He didn't know why. He saw it in a vision and had to build it. Then he saw it on tv. We saw it and it is all submitted. I mean it just sticks right out like nobody's business.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

It really is. It was really. He. It was a huge. I mean you could see it way before we ever got there. And apparently some people climb it every year, but it's. They don't like them too during the season. Some kind of sacred.

[Bubba]

Well, this is another thing where the Indians and the white man have to work together, Right?

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah.

[Bubba]

And the Indians consider it a sacred correct location. Now this goes back to the history one of the. And why it got its name because I was wondering why do they call it the Devil's Tower? One of the early Calvary. Calvary generals who was in charge of the area and had to deal with Indians who thought it was a. A holy site told the Indians that it's where the devil lived. And it got the name the Devil's Tower. He was trying to spook them out of the area and to leave it alone. So that's how it got its name. It is still considered a sacred area for some of the Indian tribes. It is. You can climb it. People do die climbing it all the time. It's. If you, you see the pictures, you'll understand why. I mean it's straight up and straight down. And they do ask that you don't climb during a certain holy month on the Indian calendar. And I think that was July or September.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

No, it was in June or July, late June or July. I can't remember. I Think July.

[Bubba]

But people do climate. There's even a record for the guy who got up the fastest to the top. Right now, the top has its own little ecosystem that is not where a UFO landed in the movie and brought back the pilots that disappeared in World War II. Okay, so I remember that movie so well. What a great.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

I don't remember it at all. I don't even know if I've seen the movie, really.

[Bubba]

You know what? We're gonna go watch.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

We're probably not, but anyway, we might remember that. I remember that song just because, you know, it's a famous thing. But no, I don't remember.

[Bubba]

So we've got some really good pictures from Devil's Tower, and we will. We will get that to you. And it's close to Sturgis, South Dakota, which. The population of Sturgis grows tenfold when all the bikers come in. And the whole town is kind of built around hosting that event.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yes.

[Bubba]

And it. It's. It's become such a big financial thing for that area. And Devil's Tower is one of their favorite places to go because it's not too far out of Sturgis. So you'll see that they're set up ready to handle tourists in that area. Now, we went to Little Bighorn. We saw where that happened, but the actual battlefield was closed the day that we were there.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Well, they're doing some renovation to it or something like that.

[Bubba]

They're building.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah. So it was closed, and I didn't

[Bubba]

get to see that because, I mean, we could see it from a distance, but we could not get up there close. The big sky country is in the Crow Nation area. Now. This is the largest Indian reservation in North America. Now, why did the Crow Nation get to have such a big reservation when all the other Indian tribes had little bitty piecemeal things?

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah.

[Bubba]

They helped out the U.S. government.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Right.

[Bubba]

They were on the side of the U.S. government during the Indian wars out west and actually was helping. They were actually helping Custer. And so they were rewarded. After all this was over with the largest reservation of any Indian tribe, 100 miles long by 60 miles wide. That's a pretty big. Pretty big track of land up there. It is, as a matter of fact. You go and it's right in the corner of Montana. So you go into Montana and you ride for an hour and a half before you find the welcome center where Montana for the white man starts, for lack of a better term.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah, yeah.

[Bubba]

But we saw. We got to stop there and see a lot of a Lot of very interesting things. There's. There's several museums there we got to look at. And that, you know, that was quite a battle. That was, you know, where Custer met his. His end.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yep.

[Bubba]

And there's a lot of history about that battle. The Sioux Indians, which were led by Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, you've all heard that name. They overwhelmed General Cluster and his calvary.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Custer or Custer?

[Bubba]

Custer. General Custer.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

It was a cluster for Custer.

[Bubba]

I mean, it was when he. When he turned around on that ledge and there was Indians everywhere. It was a bad deal. They call it Custer's Last Stand. And there's actually a heel there called Custer's Last Stand, where they fought to the last soldier.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yep.

[Bubba]

But every single one of them was killed.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah. Oh, well, there you go.

[Bubba]

You know, this also, that. That whole battle came. We got so many sayings off of that. Custer's Last Stand. We've all heard that. You know, the saying, we won the battle, but we lost. The war was critical in this battle because this was the worst defeat the US Government ever took to the Indians. And it was right at the 100 year celebration back in Washington. We were celebrating 100 years of America. And news come back. All these dignitaries, all these governors, all these mayors are all in D.C. celebrating with our Congress, the great accomplishment of 100 years on this continent. And they get news that hundreds of US Cavalry men have been killed along with General Custer. Custer, who was a Civil War hero, he actually made general when he was in his twenties.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah.

[Bubba]

In charge of volunteers. Now, he lost that rank when he went back to the regular Army. Long story. But if you were in charge of volunteers, you could be promoted in the field. And he was to general. So technically, he was the youngest general we've ever had in the US and no one will ever break that record because of the age, but it's. It caused such an uproar in the government that they loaded up and they went and finished the Indians off. It was the last stand for the Indians to have their own land. So there's the saying, we won the battle but lost the war. And the reaction and the reply by the US Government was tremendous. We sent thousands of cavalrymen out there to finish this off. And they also. That's where they actually apprehended and eventually brought to Nebraska, Crazy Horse. And he was killed in custody. Now, the story is that he tried to break loose from a guard that was holding him and another guard bayoneted him. So I don't know if that's true or not. That that's the story they tell. But he was held in high regard by the Lakota Indians, part of the Sioux Nation. And he's got an awful big face on the side of a mountain now, if they ever get it done. But it's. It's a great thing to go see. So we did that and then we went and finished that day by going into Billings, Montana. And Billings is a big city there. I think it's the largest city in Montana. And I know that our. Our tour guide, Jim. Don't. Don't call me Machine Gun Kelly said the largest. The tallest building in the entire state was there. And it's 23 stories by some states. Is. Is kind of laughable, but a beautiful town. And it was one of these towns again where this weather we're not used to. It was 93 degrees when we walked to go eat. I carried a jacket with me because the wind was blowing so hard. There was no humidity, and it was actually chilly. And I feared when the sun went down we'd freeze to death. So I carried a jacket. I didn't wear it the whole time, but I think, Betty, that's the only time it's been 93 I had a coat.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah.

[Bubba]

Ever.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Well, I took a big coat and never put it on except for the morning that we were going to Raft, and that's later on in the podcast that day. But anyway, that's the only day I put that on and packed several sweater type thing. Didn't need them. You know, you just never know out there, though, you know, what kind of weather.

[Bubba]

Yeah. The elevation to play such a big part of it, because we're. Most of this time, we're 6,000ft and above. one point, we got up to about 9,000ft and people in our group were already having breathing trouble. I mean, we live now 500 foot above sea level.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Right.

[Bubba]

And we measure everything by Mount Chehaw. Okay. That's our. That's our highest point in our state is 2400ft. 2400. So we're at almost 3 cheahs. I'm just walking around, so the air is thinner. I looked it up on AI and it said that there's 29% less oxygen at that level.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah. So it never bothered me, but it did some. You know what I mean?

[Bubba]

Well, when we were walking around, I sit down and rested more than I normally would have.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Right.

[Bubba]

You could tell, you could get out of breath, but it wasn't bothering me just walking around and just. Just talking. Now, several in our group did have problems with it?

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah.

[Bubba]

And two or three. Yeah, they were, they were glad to see us get to a lower altitude.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Oh yeah.

[Bubba]

I mean, it gives you headaches.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Oh yeah. I had a little headache on a couple of days, but other than that I was fine.

[Bubba]

So day five, we head over to what is kind of the crown jewel of this trip that is Yellowstone national park. And we followed the Lewis and Clark trail to Yellowstone and Yellowstone. You know, I've heard so much about it over the years. I was afraid it was overhyped. Not a bit lived up to every, every expectation. Did you like it?

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yes, it was beautiful. It really was. Now the geysers had a quite a rotten egg, sulfur smell to it, you know, but other than that it was really, you know, I mean they were stunning, you know, to look at and all that but. And so was everything else, the waterfalls, all that. It was so pretty.

[Bubba]

Now if you have not been to Yellowstone, there's two loops. Northern loop and a southern loop and they cross in the middle and you see animals everywhere you go. I mean it could be. You could be at a rest stop. You could have a moose nibbling on the bush. So you have to be ready. They warn you about bears.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Never saw a bear.

[Bubba]

We never saw.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

I am disappointed in that. Well, that was the only disappointment of the trip, I'd say.

[Bubba]

We can see a bear around the lake. We have more people to drive.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Well, let's don't do that. Well, I'd rather see him in somebody else's area.

[Bubba]

I didn't want to run into a bear. Now they have grizzly bears like from

[Betty Lou Bussey]

the car or something, you know what I mean? I don't want to like run up on one, you know, that's not what I'm saying.

[Bubba]

But yeah, Yellowstone, and this was something I didn't know, became the first national park in the world. It was established in 1872 and then after that every president added three or four more national parks. As we went along we got to visit Mammoth Hot Springs. Now that is this whole volcanic thing. And I thought that people were more up on it because I've seen specials on it. Yellowstone is sitting on top of a super volcano and it has erupted many times in the past. That's why we have the badlands, the ash at the badlands and all this. And when it goes up again, it is going to be devastating to North America. I mean, Mount St. Helens, do you remember we all had these colorful sunsets and dust in the air for a while.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yep.

[Bubba]

Yellowstone, Yellowstone will, will crush Everything we're growing. Okay. It goes. She'll be a big one. And at one point, we drove through the super volcano part of Yellowstone, right. And it was about 60 miles long.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

So it's a huge. Yeah, that area.

[Bubba]

That's the. You know, if you think about a volcano on top of it, you know, looks like a bowl. We were in that bowl for about 60 miles. That's how big it is. And that's why they have all these geysers.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah.

[Bubba]

Now, the geysers, to me, are by far the coolest thing on all of it. The. They have three basins. They call it the lower, the middle, and the upper basin. The upper basin has Old Faithful on it. Yeah, Old Faithful is built up. There's a hotel, a visitor center, a cafeteria, boardwalks. But, folks, what I was not ready for is how many geysers they are in this park. Hundreds.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Oh, yeah. We couldn't even see all of them.

[Bubba]

You looked. There was smoke coming out of the ground, Right. And they. They're very. They. They tell you straight up, do not get off that boardwalk. Because that ground is so baked from the heat, over time, it's brittle. And you could put your foot in it and go right through it. Five foot down and it be hot, scalding water. It is so bad that when they build the boardwalks, they don't put post holes down in the dirt. They just put, like, concrete slabs and build on top of it, or wooden slabs and build on top of it, because they can't. If they break that crust, it'll become its own geyser. And we walked around and looked at those, and you have some that are hot springs are just a hole with water bubbling out of it that scalding hot. You have vents that are holes that you're just steam shooting up, making the awfulest noise you ever heard. And then you have the geysers that water shoots up in the air two or three stories high, different times, because the water gets to boiling inside, and it shoots it up. From a science standpoint, the geysers, by far and away, were the most. I mean, I was so into that. And this is what I didn't know. Old Faithful is impressive. It's like a fire hose squirting up in the air, and it goes off about every 92 minutes, and it's. And it's within a few minutes of that, but everybody knows. And it's like a football game out there with people waiting on it. I thought that was cool. Could you believe how many people were out there waiting on it every time.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Well, that's the main attraction out there. So. Yeah, that's when we came up. You could see all the people already sitting on little stadium snot bleachers, but little benches and whatever, you know, standing behind them.

[Bubba]

I mean.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah.

[Bubba]

1012 deep.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Oh, yeah.

[Bubba]

And it's. It's impressive. And then you go on this boardwalk and you see all these other guys or some of them have names, some of them don't. The beehive, we saw it bubbling up.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

And the tea kettle, what was that main.

[Bubba]

There was one called one.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

What was that one we saw when we first came in? That usually doesn't go off.

[Bubba]

I'm gonna get to that in just a minute. That. That to me, may have been the highlight. It's on the lower basin. Now, the middle basin has one. And I think the name of it was Excellent Excelsior.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

And it used to be that one.

[Bubba]

It used to be the biggest geyser in the park, but it blew itself up and now it's just a hot springs. But it puts out, and I want to say Jim said, 4,000 gallons of boiling water a minute and it heats the river up.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah.

[Bubba]

To the point the river has its own plant life. Even in the winter, because it's so warm, it never gets below 45 degrees, even when it's minus 20 everywhere else.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah.

[Bubba]

Which is amazing. And. But the. The biggest geyser currently that erupts is called the fountain.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

The fountain. Yeah.

[Bubba]

And he was telling us about it. We pull up to this geyser field again. It looks like 100 people cooking out. You just see these smoke trails while smoke going up. And I tell Betty, I said fountains going off. I see it going off. And we got there and got out on it. And I think it's some of the most incredible footage we got because you get so close to it and it is so much larger than Old Faithful. I mean, it is pitching a fit. We're getting wet from.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

It sprayed us. Yeah.

[Bubba]

And our tour guide said, be sure to wipe all that off your equipment, your glasses, because it's an acid. It will pit.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yes. Plastic.

[Bubba]

So, you know, we're all rubbing our phones and our glasses trying to get all that off. But it was, I think, if I just had to say, one high watermark of an excellent trip. It was seeing fountain go off because it was impressive.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

It was impressive, all right.

[Bubba]

Much bigger.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah.

[Bubba]

Bigger than the fountains at Caesar's palace, which I've seen. And I think that's where it gets its name. It's Very similar in its look. So that was really cool those days. And the wildlife you see there is amazing.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Elk. Didn't we see elk?

[Bubba]

And, and they also. There's a waterfall there that is actually a longer fall waterfall than Niagara Falls.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

That's what was pretty to me.

[Bubba]

Not as wide, but it's a longer fall and it has washed out this valley. That is just incredible. And then again you're at an elevation of 6,600ft.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah.

[Bubba]

Which is just incredible. You know the thing about those elevations to the temperature varies greatly between the sun being out and you being in the shade because the air so thin it doesn't diffuse the heat like we have. So I mean you get that direct solar heating and you get non solar heating when you're in the shade, you know, so it's, it's impressive. But I don't think Yellowstone was oversold one bit. It was. No, I thought it was really, really good. We're going to take a quick break and we'll come back and tell you. Let's say we're only today five out of nine days. So we have a little bit more to go. But I would say everything we have told you about so far, if you have not seen it, make a trip to see it. I think everybody, it was on my bucket list and I'm glad it was.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Oh yeah, it was probably not on my bucket list but you know, I'm glad I went. It was a great, great trip, you know, great company. We had a great time.

[Bubba]

Yeah, we really did. And I'll tell you more about it. We went with caravan tours. There's no full disclaimer. We didn't get any discount here. They're not paid.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

We did not.

[Bubba]

We paid just like everybody else and they really, really did a good job. But we'll tell you more about that when we come back in just a minute.

[Theme Song Singer]

It's Bubba on the Lake. Bubba on the Lake.

[Commercial Voice]

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[Commercial Voice]

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[Bubba]

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[Bubba]

All right, we're back folks. We're recapping Bubba goes west. Our trip with caravan tours as we went out and toured big sky country. Bucket list items for me. And we were talking about Yellowstone. Yellowstone was actually a two day event. Day five and day six, it took that much to see it. We saw Mammoth hot springs, which is a huge bubbling up of hot water and bacteria that forms around that and the salt looking stuff around. I mean it's just. It's incredible, isn't it?

[Betty Lou Bussey]

It was a big stinky hole. Yeah, I really was. I mean it was mammoth all right.

[Bubba]

And that's. That's the only time on the trip we saw a snake.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yes, it was. Yeah. And it looked almost like a rattlesnake. But what did they call it? It wasn't it. It was our chicken snake. But they called it something.

[Bubba]

They said it mimicked a rattlesnake. It would shake its tail. But most, yeah, apparently do that.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

It was not a. I wasn't poisonous.

[Bubba]

I wasn't excited to see it.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Well, no, no, it was a big old snake.

[Bubba]

If I could have got close to it, I'd have killed it. But you know, the park probably wouldn't appreciated that. So we did that. Then we went the second day over to see the geysers and all that we just told you about, which to me, I think may have been the pinnacle for me. Then we go over to Jackson Lake Lodge and this is over in the Teton National Park. Now I know many of you have heard of the Grand Tetons and you probably are well aware of how they got their name. A little shocked that they've let them keep those names over the years. If you are looking at the grand tetons from about 50 miles away, clearly two humps. Okay. And it was named by a bunch of Frenchmen that were there for trapping and had not seen women in six months.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah, shocker.

[Bubba]

Yeah, that's how it got its name. I noticed our tour guide struggle a little bit with the correct way, the politically correct way to say this, but I think you all get the point. We did have a two night stay at the Grand Teton National Park Lodge, which is called Jackson Lake Lodge. When you walk into the, the lobby.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Oh, it's unbelievable. It really is.

[Bubba]

When you get up on the Grand Tetons, it doesn't look like two humps anymore. It looks like a bunch of humps. Okay. My humps. My hump. You know, I mean it's, it, it is just breathtaking mountains. It has snow on the top of it still. When you get above 8,000ft, the snow stays or as it melts, there's actually glaciers, big ice formations and so we got to see that. And, and, and there's this huge wildlife area between the lodge and the base of the mountains. And you're elevated a little bit so you can see. We actually saw a moose out there in the high brush.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Well, some of the people we went with had binoculars and he spotted it so we were able to see it.

[Bubba]

So it's in, we stayed in, what would you call that?

[Betty Lou Bussey]

The lodge.

[Bubba]

Yeah, but the part we were staying in.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Oh, it's kind of a.

[Bubba]

It was cabinet, cabinet.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Nowhere no tv.

[Bubba]

Nowhere no tv.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

There was not. We were there two nights. But I'll say, I mean you weren't in the room but maybe to sleep, you know what I mean? That was it. Maybe an hour to get ready in the morning, hour to get ready for bed and then sleeping. That was basically when you were in the room. But I accidentally was fidgeting because I thought, well, surely there's a little air in here. No, there was not. And I inadvertently turned the heat on so it was like a sauna.

[Bubba]

Yeah.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

We come back in the bussy cabin when we came back, came back from

[Bubba]

dinner to sauna like conditions because Betty, not knowing what she was doing, fiddled with the thermostat and got the heat on.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

And so we opened the door. I said, I really don't care at this point if a bear comes in here tonight. I'm ready to get this place cool off.

[Bubba]

Well, the Grand Tetons are a high, high animal area. We saw bison by the hundreds in the Grand Teton. We did we saw moose, we saw all this other stuff. And they warned us a lot about bears. Every trash can is bear proof. You have to put your hand in and pull a button to get the lid to come up. It's built like a tank.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

They must be a big raccoon because you know the raccoons are like that with the cat feeder.

[Bubba]

You know the, the thing is we had to leave our door open for a little while and put a fan to get some air in there because it was again like a sauna. Thanks Betty. And, but I mean I was like, if a bear wanders up, we've had it, we're in trouble. So we ended up cracking the windows that night. But yeah, but they really warned us about leaving your door shut and locking.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Oh yeah, we did shut the door and lock it before I went to sleep.

[Bubba]

But you know, I will say this to the. There was another moment on this that was almost, I don't want to over play this term, but almost a religious feel to it. One was at the fountain geyser. When you see that and you, you realize what's happening and how deep it is. And in fact you're standing on a volcano that's heating this water, the scalding temperatures. And the other was when we walked into the lodges lobby. And it's huge folks. I mean it's like you're walking into the sanctuary of a church. It's three or four stories tall. You have these big windows where you see the Grand Tetons and there's, you see the glaciers, the ice on it. And there was a lady playing a grand piano and she was playing Faithful by Journey.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah.

[Bubba]

And it was when I heard those first few chords, man, I just teared up. You know, it was, it was something, it was just the beauty and the magnitude of it is just unbelievable. And then to hear that song on top of it, I thought, man, that is awesome.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

It was the same way at Mount Rushmore. Behind those, the sky, you know, it was really, really pretty.

[Bubba]

And it was a fun trip even though we're both tearing up now. So the day seven, we are at still at the Jackson Lake Lodge and we sign up for a rafting trip down the Snake River.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yes. Which are. Neither one of our kids could believe we had done that. They're like, are you sure?

[Bubba]

Now let me be clear. This was not a whitewater rat.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

No, no, no, no. I made sure.

[Bubba]

This was more like the Okefenokee swamp with six flags.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yes. It was very, it was very docile.

[Bubba]

There was A few. There was a few places that had, you know, a little bit of white water from.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah.

[Bubba]

But not. We. We bumped through one little spot that we jumped up and down a little bit. But the, The. The good part, about this time of the year, the river is at high, high mark.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah.

[Bubba]

So you don't get stuck on anything. And we went down that river, what, an hour and a half?

[Betty Lou Bussey]

It was two hours.

[Bubba]

Two hours.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

We were on there two hours.

[Bubba]

And it was. The fun. It was so much fun because you're in a boat with about 10 people.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

It was 12 people. Six and six. And our guide was in the middle with the horse. Yeah, we.

[Bubba]

We had more in our boat.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

We did others. Yeah.

[Bubba]

But it was a little challenging getting in the raft. We had to walk through some mud to get there. I videoed that because I couldn't wait to hear Betty talk about her tennis shoes.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Hey, I did good. I didn't complain. Not one word about it.

[Bubba]

But I thought the. The trip down the Snake river, we had a great. We had a great guy running the raft named Jesse.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah, he was great.

[Bubba]

And he lives there. His wife works at the lodge.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah.

[Bubba]

And he was a lot of fun. And he told us. He said, look, when we get on this, you could see any. We could see moose. We could see buffalo or bison or bears. He said, we see bears on this regularly.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah.

[Bubba]

And all I can think of is that video with those guys in Alaska on that raft and that mama bear comes out in the water after them.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah.

[Bubba]

That's all I could think of about.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Of course. And he tells me that right before we get on the raft. And I'm like, don't even start, you know?

[Bubba]

But it was a very, very enjoyable trip. Like I say, we got to talk with some of our other travel mates and get them to know. Get to know them a little bit better. We did see bald eagle.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

We did

[Bubba]

hawks, several things. And it was. I'll say that was probably the surprise fun event of the whole thing for me.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

The raft.

[Bubba]

Yeah.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Really?

[Bubba]

Yeah. I mean, it was. Again, I wasn't expecting a lot, but I enjoyed it more than.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Oh, yeah. Well, it wasn't. I was afraid I would be a little apprehensive, but I really wasn't. I mean, when they said even the wheelchair folks got on it, I thought, well, I'll be fine, you know.

[Bubba]

Sure. And we had a few with walking sticks in our group, so, you know, they all volunteer. They all went. So I thought we could.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah, I thought, I will be fine. Yeah.

[Bubba]

But they do tell you if you fall overboard, what to do. And yeah, we're life jacket.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

And he starts telling you that right before you get out. And me and everybody else, we're looking at each other like, what, we're gonna fall off.

[Bubba]

You're not to try to get back in the boat. They tell you to put downstream and float.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

I thought, you got to be kidding me. I ain't floating for the rest of the way.

[Bubba]

I'd be like a cat trying to get up a tree, get back in that route, you know, I mean, I'd be stretching, pull everybody out.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

That would have really been a story right there.

[Bubba]

But it was. It was a very fun day. A couple of fun days that we had there at the Grand Tetons. And I tell you, I could go back and spend another few days there.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Oh, yeah.

[Bubba]

Cannot. You just cannot take it all in?

[Betty Lou Bussey]

No.

[Bubba]

We went to the spot where Ansel Adams took his historic photograph. Trust me, if you've not seen it, it's probably hanging in your grandmother's house. Yeah, I know mine had it one time. I'd like to have another copy of it now. The photography that's available from there is just absolutely breathtaking. So we leave the Grand Tetons and we head to Salt Lake City. And we got to see several things on the way to that. We saw the Oregon Trail. We stopped at one place where the Oregon Trail started, and they have a visitor center, kind of a museum type thing. And the local. The local theater group actually puts on a little thing about taking you on the trail. And I know you were concerned about some of that when we got around the old campfire.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Well, now you left off Jackson Hole. We went to Jackson Hole that afternoon after the Tetons.

[Bubba]

I'm sorry, how did I forget that?

[Betty Lou Bussey]

You left that completely off where the big antler arch was.

[Bubba]

Yeah, we got a picture of that that'll be online. You know, Jackson Hole, I'd always heard about it. And we.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Me too.

[Bubba]

We had an intern that actually worked there for a while. What you need to think of is Gatlinburg West. It's very Gatlinburg looking, but it's all in a. Like a square. Branches off the square. And when they say Jackson Hole, they. It's technically Jackson. And Jackson Hole is on down the road a little bit. But everybody calls it Jackson Hole.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

And what's the little. Wasn't it a drugstore thing that we ate there too?

[Bubba]

Or was it a. Yeah, it was the Jackson drugstore.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

It wasn't wall.

[Bubba]

Wall was the other one, it was Jackson Drug.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Jackson Drug or something.

[Bubba]

It's a famous landmark we had.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

It is. It was really good. Really good. Yeah. They're known for, like, their huckleberry shakes or something like that. And I tasted the ice cream. I didn't get a shake. You got a, like, chocolate shake. But we got the burgers because those were supposed to be the thing to get.

[Bubba]

Oh, I got the Rodeo Clown.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Oh, yeah.

[Bubba]

Check this out, folks.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Rodeo Clown.

[Bubba]

This is. This is why I've got to really cut back this one.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yes.

[Bubba]

It was a hamburger with it.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Barbecue meat.

[Bubba]

Barbecue meat on top of the hamburger.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Zap. Bound to you.

[Bubba]

Yeah, yeah.

[Theme Song Singer]

That.

[Bubba]

I'm gonna tell you, I don't know that one meal is going to take two weeks on zip bound to get over I.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

More hamburgers this past week because every. The bison burger, the regular hamburger. This, that. Yeah, we all did. Yeah. So I know I'm gonna have to like, take up running or something, I guess and starve.

[Bubba]

So our. Our last. Our last part of our tour is we go to Salt Lake City and we actually got a tour of some of the Mormon set up there. The LDS group got to see. We got a tour inside the temple and we learned a lot of history about the Mormons on the way out there because of their heavy influence as they migrated west. But every town has a temple.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Sure does.

[Bubba]

And a. What was the name of the other tabernacle or whatever?

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Tabernacle. Yeah. I don't. Yeah. Was that the place we didn't get to go in the Mormon Tabernacle because that's like sacred or whatever. But we were able to go in one of their. I don't remember if they. What they called it exactly.

[Bubba]

A smaller thing in each town. I think it was the temple that was open to the public.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Maybe. So. Yeah.

[Bubba]

And they. They always would leave a door open because everyone was invited to come in and they used it for community events. But as you said, the tabernacle was reserved for Mormon worship.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah.

[Bubba]

And only you had to be a certain grade or certain class of Mormon even get to go in. You had to have a recommendation.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

And if you were going to get married there, you had to have a recommendation. All that. Yeah.

[Bubba]

And it was. You know, the history of that is interesting. I know. You know, we. We don't subscribe to the Mormon beliefs. We have some commonality in that, but we don't carry it to the limit. They did. And they, you know, will add on the Book of Mormon, but you have to appreciate what they have done in Salt Lake City.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

The gardens were beautiful.

[Bubba]

And the business model they have.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah.

[Bubba]

Now, it is strange to me that the Mormons are not allowed to take caffeine.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah.

[Bubba]

And certain things like that. But yet they own the Coca Cola bottling rights there. So.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah.

[Bubba]

You know, I don't. And they own grocery stores that sell alcohol, but they're not allowed to take out. I have a little bit of a problem with that, to be honest with you. That seems like we're in business more than we're following our religion.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah.

[Bubba]

No offense to the lds.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah.

[Bubba]

But the two I do appreciate, and I'll underline this. Their. Their moral stance. They're very moral people. They're very focused people. They take care of each other and their business models. To do business with other Mormons is why they're so successful.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Right.

[Bubba]

They have really grown their businesses up taking care of each other. So I think that leaves something that we all could do a little bit better. But we did meet two young ladies there that were doing their tour. I guess you could say one was from Canada and one was from Australia or it was somewhere way off. Anyway, I engaged him and talked to him a little bit, but I didn't go to evangelical on them, being that we were their guest and we only had about 20 minutes, so. But I did pray for them. And they're. Look, there's Ruby. The dogs are upset even at the mention of it.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

That's right.

[Bubba]

But it was. The barkers are in play. Just. Just shut that door, Betty. That be the best thing is we're recording the podcast, but it was very interesting to see. Salt Lake City is a beautiful town. There's people there from all over the world. And it has to be one of the cleanest towns you'll ever run.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

It really.

[Bubba]

They ain't a piece of blowing anywhere.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

The airport that we flew out of in Salt Lake City was really. I've never seen an airport that clean

[Bubba]

or that efficient or that efficient.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah. They really were.

[Bubba]

Yeah. If. If Salt Lake City was a fast food, they'd be Chick fil a.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yes.

[Bubba]

I don't know how.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Or a grocery store. They would be. You know, they.

[Bubba]

They. It's a beautiful place. I would not mind going back there at all. The. The Delta Center. It's a Delta hub. The Delta center, where the jazz play was just a few blocks away from all the Latter Day Saints operations. And it's an interesting story how that came about, how they had to keep moving west because they were getting run out of everywhere. They were at and they, they literally went to a place that nobody wanted and made it happen. I mean Salt Lake City is a desert, right? They may.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

It is.

[Bubba]

Yep. No doubt. So interesting story. Even though I don't completely agree with their, their religious takes on that and I'm not going to act like I do and I know even some of the LDs listening to this. We've probably had that debate in email before. I can respectfully disagree with you and I hope you appreciate that. All right, so that was day nine. We, we hit the airport, we fly back and hey baby, it's an all day, all day event. We got to go through Detroit again.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Had another mini stroke when we scheduled the flight back apparently. So yeah, we go to Salt Lake City, we go to Detroit, Michigan. Once again, Detroit.

[Bubba]

Nice airport.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

It is. It's a very nice airport. Sure is.

[Bubba]

Had a 37 minute layover.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

One bad.

[Bubba]

Just about the amount of time we needed to get from one flight.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah, it really was because we had to take concourse this and that or whatever, you know, the train to the Concorde, blah blah, blah. So anyway, yeah, it was just enough time made the flights.

[Bubba]

So you know, I think what I was thinking back then was we're trying to avoid Atlanta. And you say, well, why do you avoid Atlanta? Well, this has happened many times. We fly into Atlanta, then you have this real quick flight back to Birmingham, about an hour. But you spend more time in the terminal and on the Runway than you do in the air. And that always aggravated me to know in so we were going to have to make a connection. I thought, well, let's just make it in Detroit. Then we'll have to, you know, medium length flights won't have a real short one and we can avoid the delays in Atlanta. And I'll have to say Detroit was much quicker at getting you in the air from the term.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah, I guess so. It's been so long. The last time I flew out of Atlanta was what last December maybe when we went to Orlando I guess. And we almost missed that flight. That was pre knee replacement for you and you were trying to hobble through there and it was not, you know, not happening to get to the gate in time. But we did. Barely. Yeah.

[Bubba]

Since you brought that up. But you have to admit this trip was much better.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Oh yeah, you did great. Yeah. Other than the high elevation and getting out of breath, you did great. Yeah.

[Bubba]

And I just sit down.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah, yeah, you did. Yeah, you did good.

[Bubba]

So I think knee replacement at this point looks like good.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yes. Oh yeah. I Think so too.

[Bubba]

Three surgeries. We'd like to kept it to one, but yeah, overall I think it went well.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Right.

[Bubba]

So again, I want to thank Jim Kelly, or as I love to call him, Jim Machine Gun Kelly. He was a great tour guide. He boy, I mean, he knew every turn on that highway.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

He. Okay, that's what was so funny. And he'd give you a play by play of Dennis the bus driver. That's what was so funny that David Shaw pointed out or whatever because he would say, okay, we're turning in. Dennis is going to go left. We're looking for a parking place. We're looking, we're looking, we're looking.

[Bubba]

On the.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Well, yes, it was just every. And then above 2 o'. Clock. Sheep horns, you know, or whatever. Or bison or whatever it was, you know, it was so funny.

[Bubba]

And Dennis threaded that bus through some places.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Oh my gosh.

[Bubba]

There wasn't one inch of clearance.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Okay.

[Bubba]

By my window, if y' all can

[Betty Lou Bussey]

thank Kramer on Seinfeld. And just think about Kramer getting older and now we're driving a bus. Well, to me, Dennis reminded me so much of Kramer. I mean, he really did. I mean, he wasn't that funny like that, but his mannerism.

[Bubba]

He didn't talk that much.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

No, he didn't. He didn't talk that much.

[Bubba]

There was some resemblance.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yes.

[Bubba]

A little bit.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yes.

[Bubba]

But super guy.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Oh my gosh. So nice. And a excellent bus driver. He really was.

[Bubba]

As the military says. I'd fly with him any day.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Oh, yes.

[Bubba]

And. And Jim did a great job. Caravan Tours did a great job. We, we got recommended to them by your sister Peggy, who had been on.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Who is flying out tomorrow morning on another caravan tour to the Canadian Rockies.

[Bubba]

And there's several groups that was touring along with us and I'm sure they do a great job too. Again, caravan. We had a great time. I would probably book with them again.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yes.

[Bubba]

My, my personal thoughts I would do.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

I think I'll see how my sister likes the Canadian Rockies. That may be our next trip.

[Bubba]

And while there's other places I would like to see, I would have no trouble going back and seeing this again.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Oh, no, no. I don't know that I want to do this exact tour again. You know what I mean? Maybe fly to Jackson or something.

[Bubba]

And you look around Jackson Hole.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

I did. Yeah. I really did.

[Bubba]

You came out.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah.

[Bubba]

Now we packed our suitcases. If when you unzip them, they almost exploded. And here comes Betty with a bag full of things she's bought.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Well, I found the 995T shirt rack, you know what I mean, at Jackson. So, you know, you couldn't pass that up. Come on.

[Bubba]

Well, it was a great tour. Any of you that are wanting to go out west, I would highly suggest that you go ahead and do that. We do know this July is the busiest month. Caravan does not even do tours in July, it's so crowded. But June is a great time to go because they're gearing up for that busiest part of the year. But it's not as crowded now. There was plenty of folks.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

There were plenty.

[Bubba]

Yeah, it's not as busy as it would be in July and you have to kind of watch the seasons too. I think all of that ends fairly early in October because they have a pretty hard winter.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Well, the weather's great in June too. Or it was for us. Now a week or two before us though, it snows.

[Bubba]

Yeah.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

So you just never know. That's why we packed bigger coats. You just don't know what to pack really.

[Bubba]

Is the only thing Jim had told us. The group he carried before us, I think it was about two weeks earlier. They had heavy clouds and couldn't even see.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Oh, I know. I cannot imagine.

[Bubba]

I would be sick if I went that far and see it.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Couldn't see anything much because of the weather, so.

[Bubba]

And by the way, those of you that saw National Treasure, there is a room at the top of Mount Rushmore where they were going to put in all these important documents. It was never finished.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah.

[Bubba]

So the movie is accurate in that part and you can see that in the movie that they show about, about Rushmore there. So we'll, we'll wrap up this segment here. This podcast is going to run a little long, but we had a lot to do overall. Betty, I say a plus on.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Oh yeah, me too.

[Bubba]

It was tiring after about day six.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Well, we're not used to getting up and being gone by 7:30.

[Bubba]

Well, not all 7:00'.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Clock. Well, you ain't gone that like you're not. You come home and take a nap by 2 o'. Clock. What are you saying? Like we would start out, we would be at breakfast by 6:30 at the latest and we would stay out and about, walking around, doing, seeing stuff, doing stuff until really 6, 7 at night. So I mean it was a 12 hour busy day and we would come back and be exhausted usually.

[Bubba]

And when, yeah, when we came back to go to bed, we didn't have any problem going to bed. And I did not miss not having a tv.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah, me either. No, you didn't need a tv. Let's. Yeah.

[Bubba]

So I give it an A plus. Caravan Tours is who we went with. But however you get there, I do like the fact we had the bus tour. I thought a few times if I had to drive that you would miss a lot because on the bus you can just sit back and let them do the driving, them do the talking, and you take it all in and

[Betty Lou Bussey]

windows on the bus that you could see out and take your pictures and he would tell you and whatever. And at least we know now what we're up against. If we do want to fly out and drive or something, we can do that.

[Bubba]

Wouldn't hurt my feelings at all to go and stay a week at the Grand Tetons. Yeah, that'd be pretty stuff again, you

[Betty Lou Bussey]

know where or whatever. But. Yeah.

[Bubba]

Well, I think that Jackson was it. Jackson Lake Lodge. It's just so breathtakingly pretty.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Oh, it is.

[Bubba]

Three restaurants in it.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Oh, it does. Okay. The restaurants were excellent and all that, too.

[Bubba]

Well, if you're a cowboy and you. You burn the kind of calories they did every day, you need a 5,000 calorie meal, not worry about it.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah.

[Bubba]

And they tried to eat those, too. They still supply.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah, they do. Yep. They have quite the ice cream thing there, too.

[Bubba]

And you know, one of the funniest things, we ran into several people who were familiar with the radio show and the podcast while we were gone.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah.

[Bubba]

And made, like you said, a lot of good friends. A shout out to Lisa and Rob Conrad from Maryland.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah.

[Bubba]

We ate dinner with them the last night. A great couple. Great story about them getting together.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

And the young couple from Florida, we met them. And then the Buffalo Four, fondly named the Buffalo Four because it was four ladies from Buffalo, New York.

[Bubba]

Yeah, we'll give them a name.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah. And also the South Carolina six, although two of them were actually living in Pennsylvania now, they've recently sold their house in South Carolina and building in Maryland close to the lake over there or the water.

[Bubba]

So, anyway, we want to thank our longtime friends David and Nancy Shaw from Jacksonville, who went. Had to leave a day early because Nancy's mom was being inducted into the Calhoun County Sports hall of Fame. Congratulations to her. And I get to. I've had the pleasure of working with her in the regional basketball tournament the past two years. So congratulations to her. Well deserved for her history and everything that she did to bring women's sports along in our county. And we missed David and Nancy the last day, but I think they got the Majority, I think they did.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

They missed the raft trip and Jackson Hole.

[Bubba]

Right.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

So now they're saying we must fly out there and at least do that. Yeah. And maybe if we go back to Salt Lake City, I want to go to. What's that? Park City is what I. It's like 45 minutes from there or whatever.

[Bubba]

And let me say this. We. While we were in Salt Lake City headed to the airport, I asked our driver about Brandon Fugal that owns Skinwalker Ranch, and he knows where his building was. It was a few blocks away from where we were driving. We didn't go by. And I did talk to Dr. Travis Taylor while we were there, and I said, how close are we? He said, two hours. Nobody's there right now, but you can go to the gate and take a picture. And it was two hours, and we didn't have four hours to give at the time. But flying back to Salt Lake, Here we go. Listen, Skinwalker is still on the bucket list. Well, you listen. I knocked a lot of things off my bucket list in just nine days.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

Yeah, well. Yeah, well, you got a Tesla. That was right. Yeah, yeah. And now we have the parade of trade in cars that we're about to have to get rid of. So I don't know who's ready for a used car? Anybody? Anybody? Anyone? Anyone? You know?

[Bubba]

Well, I'm pretty sure I told the story about how I got my bucket list during the first segment. We didn't. We'll catch up on that later.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

So, yeah.

[Bubba]

Anyway, trip A plus. If you get a chance to go to big sky country, Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone, all that we talked about, go see it. You will not be disappointed. And thank all of you for being a part of Bubba on the Lake.

[Theme Song Singer]

You're listening to Bubba on the Lake.

[Commercial Voice]

Hit me bad. A production of intergalactic pants and teaspoons.

[Betty Lou Bussey]

All rights reserved.

[Commercial Voice]

Since 1965, Bice Motors has been Lake

[Bubba]

Martin area's home for Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram sales and service for 60 years. Families have trusted bikes motors in Alexander City for honest deals, friendly service and the best selection around.

[Commercial Voice]

Our team of certified technicians services most

[Bubba]

all makes and models. Plus we've got a tire center, parts department and a full collision center to keep you rolling.

[Commercial Voice]

Bice Motors, your hometown Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep,

[Bubba]

ram dealer since 1965, and Alex CD

[Commercial Voice]

are online at Vicemotors.com buy it at Vice Vice Motors.

[Announcer]

You know one thing I love about buffalo wild wings. You can get wings with any of their 26 sauces and dry rubs for takeout and delivery. That's like bringing an entire B dubs home with you, which you can't do. I tried. I've knocked down so many walls only to then be told to halt construction because I'm not zoned to be a sports bar kind of just looks like a big pergola or something. Because of the lack of walls, at least these 26 sauces and dry rubs are available to go Buffalo Wild Wings

[Bubba]

let's go Sports Bar on the water or off? Experience lake life to the fullest at Russell Lands on Lake Martin Want to know what's going on around Lake Martin? Check out the calendar of seasonal events that include Fridays on the Green, naturalist events, fireworks, concerts, poker runs, boat shows, juried art shows, boat parades, and much more. If you're here for the weekend or if you've made your home at the Lake, Russell Lands is where community and the land come together. To learn more about upcoming events, visit Russelllands.com come see what Lake life is all about. This podcast is brought to you in part by Russell Lands Coke Buffalo Wild Wings Central State Bank Dr. Thomas Dudney Sunrise Docks Bice Motors the Green Monster

[Theme Song Singer]

Fishing Lights B U B A on the lake hey Wishing I could listen to the show every day hey Gotta hear what Bubba and his buddies gotta say on B ubble B A on the lake in the metal hello yellow studio putting on a show Betty say what she always on the go we got on a bus sitting at master control don't wanna miss a moment cause Bubba's got the flow B U double B A on the lake hey Wishing I could listen to the show every day hey gotta hear what Bubba and his buddies gotta say on B U double B A on the lake Hey B U B U B A Hey B U B A Hey B U B A on the lake.