Happy Fourth of July

We're rolling through the wheatfields of Montana, seeing what truly is the breadbasket of this country. The hills are to our north and on either side of us, are irrigation systems, green fields, and ranches. It's absolutely beautiful! Ranches here are so big, that the houses can't even be seen from the road.

Just crossed the Missouri River and have seen trucks carrying innertubes, folks headed out for July 4th picnics. We will celebrate by doing what we do best, driving. We hope to arrive in Glacier by 7pm. We heard from fellow travelers who had just come from GNP that night time temps were in the 30s. It can't be much colder than what we just experienced at Yellowstone, with the state low temperature of 37. That makes for some cold camping! Fortunately, we will be staying at the Swift Current Motor Inn. No need to make nighttime forays to the bath house, keeping an eye peeled for wild animals...Yay!

We hope you all have a happy and safe 4th. Grill a hotdog or two for us:-)

Laundrymats I have known

Back home in Buena Vista, VA, we called them laundrymats, but I've heard them referred to as laundriettes and they more properly should be called laundromats, but I'll stick with what I know.

I've visited three of them since we started out this trek and each one has been quite different. The first was at Lone Duck Campground in Colorado Springs. Small campground, small laundrymat. Not the most updated and modern, but efficient and best of all, empty. I got started on my wash, left for a while, came back to switch over to the dryer and met up with two young men bent on doing their wash before climbing Pike's Peak the next day. Christian was the name of the first young man and I never did get the name of the other. Nice boys from Tennessee, out with a group of fellow climbers, probably great at mountain stuff, but clueless concerning laundry. I asked who had done the laundry in the past and they both replied, "mama", so I stepped in and gave advice on how it should be done. A lot of stress went into "unnamed boy's" choices of Perm Press/cotton/delilcates/etc...I told him he'd better learn something about wash before he went on to East Tennessee State...mama might not always be available to do laundry. These boys were so sweet and nice and I'm happy to say I saw Christian at the summit the next day (despite my woozy spell, I talked to him and congratulated him on his success). Who knows where they are now, but hopefully they've learned to do the wash.

Laundry at the Grand Tetons was a nightmare. No friends there because it was cutthroat. Jockeying for positions at the washer then doing the same for the dryer...felt like I was on the Indy 500 raceway. Finally with the wash in the dryer I was able to chat with a few people and met a great family from Chattanooga and a nice lady from Boston. Not a total washout. ha ha laundry humor.

Now I'm at the laundrymat in Yellowstone. Quiet, plenty of washers/dryers, people are friendly and I've had a few minutes to myself to read, charge the computer, and make some friends. Chuck and Dianne from northern California are the latest laundry friends and I have to say thanks to them for helping pass the time.

Laundry is done, must be folded, and then back to the campground to fix dinner, oh, and start the dirty clothes process all over again

Thanks for the comments

We wanted to thank you all for your comments on our posts. It's encouraging to us to hear from friends and to catch up a little as we travel. If you've read our blog and haven't posted a comment, write a little something for us:)

Peggy and Danny, thanks for responding to Jonathan's post on the bear. He was thrilled to know that you've read what he wrote! Lisa, I'm pretty sure Shelley won't ever want to go camping in the popup for Girl's Weekend, but we can camp near a hotel and she can join us for roasted marshmallows. Sri, we were not thrilled with Yellowstone, but hope you enjoy the pictures all the same. Tom Parsons, Tom and Julie, Grandma and Grandpa, Cindy and Jamie, and all other posters, thanks so much for your kind words. We look forward to hearing from you all. Don't be shy:)

Off to showers and then breakfast. July 3rd in Yellowstone should be a quiet day, resting before the long journey to Glacier.

Lessons learned:
1. Bring many, many more quarters than you think....showers here are 8 quarters a person for 6 minutes of shower.

2. Bring many more snack items than you planned....boys are always hungry.

3. Just because the restaurant says "casual" and "cafeteria" doesn't make it reasonably priced. Nothing in the National Parks, except postcards, is reasonably priced.

Photos from Yellowstone

Family shot at the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. The teenager taking it put the falls right behind Aaron's head :-(


Yellowstone Summary:
After so many grand views without much effort at our previous two parks I now know why by friend Sri said that Yellowstone is a bit of a disappointment. Don't get me wrong, the park is beautiful, but just not as spectacular as some of the other and it requires lots of travel (i.e., effort) to get to the grand spots. We must have driven 150 - 175 miles to go completely around the park today. If you are going one direction you may as well just keep going or you will have to retrace your steps the next day or just forgo that part of the park. The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone is very grand as the pictures will show. Mammoth hot springs is almost completely dried up so that was a bit of a downer since we drove a long way to get there. Old Faithful and the Upper Geyser basin are very interesting. The rest of the park shows how the big the west is and how beautiful it is, but after many miles it is hard to keep excited about it. We saw lots of buffalo, elk, and two bear along the way as many other beautiful rivers and waterfalls. The geyser basins seemed a lot further apart than I remember and the family was not as thrilled at the geysers and geo-thermal sites as I remember being at their age. All-in-all it was an eventful day that kind of got lost in the shuffle after many hours site seeing. We took 137 photos so it must have been pretty good. Hope you enjoy them. After so much travel today and having travelled almost all the park, tomorrow we will just hang out by Yellowstone lake within an easy walk from our site and have a restful low key day. I will probably venture to the West Thumb geyser basin too which is only 2 miles away.
Lesson Learned: It may be better to visit either the North or South side of the park and then move your location to the other side and then visit it for a day.

Old Faithful. Was a hit with the kids so we saw it again the next day.

Paula at the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

Three elk at the lake just a two minute walk from our camp.

The Yellowstone River

Upper falls of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Only a 110 foot drop.

A shot of Mammoth Hot Springs.

Old Faithful before or after a recent blast. She is still regular at just about 60 minutes.

Old Faithful in her glory.

The big west which is most of Yellowstone

John at lower falls in a rare shot without his scalp protection.

Jonathan at Castle Geyser using his into the sun squinting smile.

Paula and Jonathan with the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone in background. If you are wondering, my older two are way too cool to take a photo with Mom or Dad and too cool to smile in any photo.

Photo by Jonathan looking straight down the upper falls with rainbow included.


Thermal activity in Upper Geyser basin

Geysers smoking in Upper Geyser basin

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone looking toward Lower Falls.

Photo of the same from Artist's Point. Easily the most photographed spot in the park and probably one of the most famous in the country.

Same as above

A couple of chicken black bears running away from us.

Buffalo!!

Or are they Bison?

More buffalo and bison :-)

A posing buffalo.

A small slice of the world

Last night, July 1, we went to witness the eruption of Old Faithful. We arrived an hour early and set up camp on a bench front and center. For those of you who haven't been there before, the geyser sits on a little rise and benches form a half circle before it. We were shooting for the 8pm show and due to the lateness of the hour, the crowd was not horrible. Having an hour to kill, John and Jonathan strolled around looking at the other, lesser known geysers and I kept company with Aaron and Evan.



People began to arrive, filling the benches around us, and I filled the time by watching and listening. Germans were behind us, Pakistanis were to the right, Japanese to the left, Chinese down the way a little all speaking their languages, comfortable with their own group. The great thing that happened was when the geyser blew and for just a few minutes, we were all one group, united in our enjoyment of watching the marvelous event, our common language consisting of "oohs" and "aahs". For just a few minutes we were not so different after all.

Adventures in Yellowstone

Hey,we got to Yellowstone saw some bison, ravens, baby bison, and old faithful and other geysers and animals. We got to our campsite set up camp and found out that our battery for the camper is bad, so we have no lights(besides bug lights), no air conditioning and no electricity in our campsite. We saw the "grand canyon,"(not the real grand canyon) upper falls and the lower falls, I have some pictures about them to if you want see those. We have a lake near our campsite and my parents went down to see it and they found probably four adult elk and one 1-2 year old elk(all female). So were still going around the park, another post will be added soon.



Jonathan

Yellowstone

We're here...saw Old Faithful, ate ice cream, set up camp, realized we have no battery power for the pop up and will spend the night powerless. Hopefully will get it fixed tomorrow. 2 weeks into the trip and getting tired, but looking forward to seeing Glacier and Rushmore. Not looking forward to 95 degree heat again. Currently 60 degrees and quite a cool breeze...lovely. Goodnight friends.