Yellowstone

Well we just spent three days in Yellowstone! No Internet here and even spotty phone service although you could usually get a call out when you needed to. We left Cody about 10:40. Joanne had heard about a good place to buy boots so we went by there about 10 and after 40 minutes Joanne walked out with a new pair. We headed to Yellowstone and in about 1 hour we were already at the east gate. It took us about another hour and half to reach the campground. We stayed at Bay Bridge campground and with our senior citizen discount we would pay only $12 a night. This campground had water and flush toilets! You could say luxurious. Right when we pulled in a lone Bison walked through the campground and greeted us. After he moved on we set up camp had lunch and set out to West Thumb Geyser. We took turns watching the dogs and viewing the geyser. West Thumb is right on Yellowstone Lake and very large. What a great way to start our visit to the park. By the time we got back it was around 5 and everyone was ready for their daily nap. After a nap Lyn fixed a great dinner that we finished around 9. Perfect timing as there is another amphitheatre at this campground and tonight they were going to talk about wolves. We enjoyed a great presentation in the cool of the night and headed back to our campsite. Tonight it would be in the low 40’s. A little high for Yellowstone this time of year but plenty cold for a good nights sleep. The night went well except for the occasional slip of a blanket that would cause you to wake up freezing and cover your self back up. Jasper worked his way under our blankets in the middle of the night and warmed us up completely. We woke up about 6 am and it was cold outside. I decided to build a fire and then fixed breakfast. It was great to sit around the fire while the temperature had barely hit 50. Not bad for the middle of July! We had to drive 4 miles to take a shower at another campground. It was across the famous “Fishing Bridge” which is beautiful anytime of day but at 7AM ……….well what can I say I do not have the vocabulary to describe it. Lets just say if you have the opportunity to hang out there on any given morning you should take the time to do it. You will be better for it. After we got back we headed out for day two of Yellowstone. We decided to do the bottom loop. This would take about 6 hours counting the many stops and time for lunch. We stopped at the “Grand Canyon” of Yellowstone and some idiot suggested that we do Uncle Tom’s trail. (Of course that idiot would be me.) We would be able to view the upper falls from the bottom. The trail started off slightly down hill and Joanne, Lyn and myself gladly walked down the winding trail and finally the trail turned to the occasional case of stairs and further on it turned into just stairs. Not wimpy stairs mind you stairs that were just one step away from being considered a ladder. Every time we stopped and considered turning around the view got better. We kept pushing ahead. The funny thing is that all of the people going down were laughing and joking around. All of the people coming up looked stressed and those that could utter a word cannot be quoted here. J Anyway we finally made it to the bottom and were rewarded with a fantastic view of the upper falls.  After starting to go back up I figured out that we were in trouble in about 5 minutes. It took us about 35 minutes to climb back to the top. My Dad greeted us wondering what took us so long and none of us could utter a word. Next stop Midway Geyser Basin. We had recovered by the time we stopped here. Lyn, Joanne and myself went and toured the Geyser while my Dad watched the dogs. It was really nice and we got back in the car with a little more vigor this time. We had lunch at Old faithful and got to see it do its thing and then went and toured the Old Faithful lodge.  Naptime was near so we headed back to camp took a nap. It was bit hot but we made do and ate another one of Lyn’s great meals around 8. We saw another ranger program about discovering Yellowstone and headed to bed about 10:30PM. After another great night of sleep Lyn and I got up about 6. We had breakfast and decided to take an early shower. Lyn had planned on doing her make-up and drying her hair there since they had a very nice facility. I found a place to charge my phone and got ready for a long wait. Surprisingly Lyn came out really fast. I asked her why she did not do her hair and she said the mirrors were to high and she could not see herself in them…. Ha Ha! That’s life at 4 foot 10 inches!! We decided to head down to the Grand Tetons. Some people refer to these as a\the American Alps. They do not disappoint! (See the pictures below.) In any National Park you do a lot of driving to get from point to point. During this time I found out that Joanne has a condition known as Auto-narcolepsy. Anytime she rides in the car she can be asleep in 5 minutes. Usually we would be riding along and a beautiful view would pop out through the trees. My Dad would yell Joanne’s name to wake her up she would be startled a wake and yell something like “lake…got it!” This happened about every 10 minutes through out the entire park. It was very entertaining! Thanks Joanne! We stopped at the visitor center and then walked around back to the Marina where some of the best views of the Tetons are. After that we took a two-hour tour around the park stopping at Jackson Lodge for lunch. We brought our own picnic lunch and had it right in front of the hotel looking out over the mountains. It was priceless! After touring the Tetons we headed back to camp and arrived around 5. Lyn fixed Spaghetti and salad and we finished up around 7:30. It was already starting to cool off so we just sat around camp while waiting for the nightly ranger show. One thing that has been hard at Yellowstone is not having access to wifi and the Internet. Even our phones were limited and can rarely get the Internet to work. So to find out information you have to use all of your resources.  That may include rangers and word of mouth from other campers.  We had been trying to get information on Glacier Park our next Destination. We had been especially interested in the weather since things have been a little hotter than usual these past few days. All of a sudden my Dad gets a call from the “Mole” a childhood friend who’s real name is Dane (He calls my Dad “Turtle” for reasons better left unknown.) that had been looking up the weather for us. Thanks to that call we now knew that we going to be treated with Daily temperatures that will be   10 degrees cooler than here. Thanks Dane you are a lifesaver! We did not want “The Hot Woman” to return! Ha Ha! After the ranger show we went to bed about 11. I woke up at 12 and could not sleep for some reason. I could hear a father in the distance yelling at his kid that had to have a midnight bathroom break. I also heard hushed conversations around the camp. I l so heard something like an electric fan being turned on and off. It was like woosh and then woosh and then woosh. Kind of strange since there is no electricity in the camp. As I lay there this sound started getting closer and closer. Finally the sound arrived at our tent accompanied by heavy footsteps and the sound of something eating grass. By this time Lyn and I were fully awake and both quietly listening to this noise that just got louder and louder. I wondered if maybe the lone bison had come back. The sound grew louder as it got up to the tent and as we waited for it to pass on by it started to circle our tent. By now it was obvious that this sound was that of a large bear checking out our tent not a Bison. The sound was the bear exhaling. I had already grabbed Jasper and kept him in a wrestling hold with my hand forcefully covering his mouth. I could tell he wanted to bark but he made now whining sounds. The three of us waited quietly for the Bear to leave but it kept circling our tent. We could hear every exhaled breath along with every footstep and the occasional rooting along the ground. Our heartbeats increased with every sound while we tried to remain as silent as possible. At the ranger show that night we learned a little about bears. They told us that the black bears were mainly to the north and the grizzly bears wear the ones that were known to come through our campground. Lyn and I were both praying and waited for what seemed like ever for the sounds to move away from our tent. Finally it moved away by maybe 10 yards. We had to decide what to do. The problem was to get to the car I had to get the keys, put Jasper’s leash on and then unzip the tent. The zipper alone would make a lot of noise so while we were debating quietly it came back. Finally it moved away and we could not hear it any more. We quietly went to the car and got in. We felt safe but our hearts were pounding. Our car was next to Joanne and Dad’s car. We decided to let them sleep as we could blow the car horn if it came back and we felt like it had left. This was by far the scariest moment of my entire life and I am sure it was for Lyn as well. We slept off and on in the car for the rest of the night. Tomorrow we head off to Glacier National Park. We shall see if we camp in our tent or try our hand at car camping! (Sleeping in the car.) Either way the adventure continues and I am glad to be on it!

Finally Yellowstone!

Bison in on our campsite!

Brutal but beautiful!

Uncle Tom's trail.

Joanne and Lyn at Midway Geyser.

Dad talking to the "Mole".

Upper Falls!

The Grand Tetons!

Marina Grand Tetons!

Dad and Noel Grand Tetons marina!

Lunch time!

Grand Tetons marina!

This guy drove his entire family from Tennessee in this 1964 Olds 98!

Dinner time!

Roosevelt Tower (North entrance to Yellowstone.)

Last Day in Cody

Woke up to anther cool morning.  This is a good thing because it is going to be 90 today. We had breakfast at the hotel. Pretty basic but good all the same. After lying around for a few hours we decide to go in to Cody. The plan was for Dad and Joanne to go to the Cody museum and Lyn and I would explore the downtown area of Cody before it got too hot. On the way there we passed a Dairy Queen and made a quick stop before heading out again. Yum Yum!!! Lyn and I walked around the town and saw a lot of interesting things but managed to hold off buying anything. Wait we did buy two hats. Well, not too bad for a couple hours of shopping. Just like last year we are on a budget and trying to spend on average $100 or less. So far we are averaging below that. One thing that has really helped is the Gas cards that were given to me by my kids, daughter-in-law and son-in-law. They have given them to me for holidays and birthday celebrations. It looks like we will make it all the way to Yellowstone on “free” gas. Thank you Rheagan, Chelsea, Caroline, Justin and Luke!!!! It is also helping us to be traveling with a couple of senior citizens. Tomorrow’s campsite at Yellowstone will only be 13 dollars a night thanks to the senior discount. Thanks Joanne and Dad! Oh yeah back to our day. Lyn and I walked around town until it was time for lunch. We passed a place that was actually cooking their ribs in a smoker in front of their restaurant. Well played! It worked, we went directly in and split an order of ribs. Can you say the word diet??!?!?! We apparently cannot!! Oh well the Rush will have to be our home when we get back. After lunch we went back and took a nap during the heat of the day. As it cooled off we all went out to dinner at another rib place and Lyn and I split ribs again. Yum Yum!!! By the time we finished it was time to go walk the dogs and go to bed. Tomorrow we are headed to Yellowstone. We have a reservation at Bridge Bay campground. When I went to read about it they mentioned that they just recently opened one of the loops in the campground due to bear activity. Yikes!!!!!  Oh well tomorrow should be exciting bears and all.

Cutting the rug!

Dinner time!

Out and about in Cody!

Sporting the new hats!

Hanging out in Cody.

In our hotel lobby.

Sharon and her 1980 TR7. 

She was the day manager at the hotel.

This was her daily driver! Super cool!

On the way to Cody Wyoming

We got up this morning around 6 and were trying to get going by 8. We had about 6 hours of driving so pretty much an all day affair since we will be stoping for lunch and traveling over the mountains. Dad and Joanne have been following us the entire way which means they turn when they see us turn. In other words they usually have no idea of the route that we are taking. This had worked just fine for the entire trip however today it just so happened that a red toyota prius got right in front of us and when it turned so did my Dad. I called them and they turned around and came back to follow us. The problem is that when he turned around he had to back up and when he did he jackknifed and the trailer hit the side of the car. Luckily the camper is fine however Joanne's car was not. It has a little cosmetic damage to the left rear tail light. Everything is still working and nobody got hurt so at the end of the day we are thankful. My Dad always says that if a problem can be fixed with money and you have the money to fix it then you really do not have a problem. Amen to that! After about 3 hours we arrived highway 14 which is a beautiful drive through Big Horn National Park. We were hoping to have a picnic lunch at the same place we did last year. As luck would have it we found the exact same spot. It was a lot cooler up there and we were able to picnic in the shade while watching people fly fish in the stream coming by. Some people have enough sense to have this be their final destination as they offer camping as well. They may just be on to something it is a little slice of heaven for sure. After we left from lunch and made it out of the mountains it started to get hot. At one point it made it all the way to 100 degrees. Even though it gets cool at night, that is pretty hot to try to take care of the dogs and ourselves so we decided to get a hotel. It would give us a chance to explore Cody while leaving the dogs in the rooms with the AC. The plan is to stay here two nights and then head out to Yellowstone on Monday morning. After we got unloaded we headed out for dinner at the Irma Hotel. It is a hotel that has a bar in it that was a gift from the Queen of England. She gave it to Wild Bill Cody for bringing his wild west show to England. It had a big porch with music and karaoke. We heard some really great singers who sang mostly old country songs with a few new ones thrown in from time to time. The night had cooled off and we had a great dinner with great music. Who could ask for more? We headed back and went to bed around 10PM. Tomorrow we will explore the town of Cody. 

Music at the Irma hotel. 
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152555308298130&set=vb.752963129&type=2&theater

Along the way.

Picnic area.

Noel relaxing.

Lunch time.

Jasper.

Home for two nights.

Dinner time.

Mt. Rushmore

We all had a goods nights sleep again, it cooled off to about 65 and felt great. Today’s weather forecast is predicting to be around 90 degrees. This makes things tougher when you are camping trying to see exhibits and take care of two dogs. We decided to go to Mt. Rushmore early to avoid the heat and be able to leave the dogs in the car. I checked last night to see when they opened and you are not going to believe this but they open at 5AM problem solved! Since not everyone wakes up at 4AM like Jasper and myself, we decided to leave at 7 and get a jump on the day. On a funny side note when Joanne was in the bathroom a little girl asked her what she was doing and Joanne said she was putting on makeup. The girl asked if she had any more make up and said that if she did she might want to think about putting that too. Ha Ha I love it what a way to start your day!! We got there at 8 and were greeted with very few people and lots of cool air to walk around in. I really love walking the trail that goes to the base of Mt. Rushmore it gives you some really great views of the Monument. We stayed there till about 11 and then headed off to Crazy Horse. It was getting warmer by then so Lyn and I decided to stay back with the dogs so my Dad and Joanne could see the museum and monument. This monument is far from being done and was originally started by one of the men who worked on Mt. Rushmore. His family still works on it until this day. They told us that today was a blast day and they were planning on doing the blast at 1PM. We could see it from the parking lot. After much anticipation we saw a puff of smoke heard a boom and that was about it. After that we were on our way to the town of Custer. Once there we decided it was too hot to walk the dogs around town and headed back to camp. Luckily it was overcast and not as hot a it could have been. We had lunch and then went to the pool to cool off. At 5PM KOA had a wine tasting so we decided to go check it out. We had some of the sweetest wine we had ever had not my cup of tea so t speak but it was free.  After that Lyn fixed another great dinner and even fixed red white and blue puto to celebrate the 4^th of July. Our campground is at the top of a hill and we could see fireworks right from our picnic table. What a great way to end the day. Tomorrow we are headed for Cody Wyoming, which is the jumping off point to Yellowstone! Happy 4^th everyone!!!

KOA Campsite Rapid City SD

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152552660118130&set=vb.752963129&type=2&theater

Dad and Joanne at Mt. Rushmore!

Crazy Horse blast!

Thomas Jefferson Ice cream!

Noel gets her daily belly rub!

KOA wine tasting!

4th of July puto!

Headed to Rapid City

The sleeping was good again. It cooled off to about 61 degrees overnight. In the morning Jasper and I got up at 4 am and went for a walk. This was really early but our bodies are still adjusting to the two-hour time difference. We usually get up at 6 every morning in Greensboro so we were not really that far off our schedule. After our walk the sun started coming up over the peaks and was really something to see. Most campers were up and going by 6AM as it is hard to ignore the day is starting when the sun comes up. Our plan for the day was to drive through the rest of the Badlands and head to Rapid City with a quick stop at Wall Drug Store a famous landmark in this part of the USA. We fixed breakfast and then headed out of the park. It was a 30-mile scenic route, which included about 15 miles of gravel road. We saw bison, prairie dogs and even few antelope.  Once we got out of the park the city of Wall was just a few miles away. Finally a visit to Wall Drug store was in order. We left the dogs in the car and went to take a quick look. We had some ice cream and then my Dad and I decided to go back and get the dogs while Lyn and Joanne went shopping. Did I say shopping? This could be trouble. We have a budget of $100 dollars a day on this trip so shopping is usually avoided. My Dad and I found a bench to sit on the main street and enjoyed talking and watching all of the characters walking by, fully aware that we were the two characters on the bench. After about an hour Lyn and Joanne came back and much to my surprise the damage was minimal. Lyn purchased a $5 pair of sunglasses and that was it. Yea still on budget! Next we headed to a KOA campground in Rapid City. It was only about an hour away. After we set up camp we made our usual run to Wal-Mart and then hit the pool! It felt great as the temperature had risen to about 82 and we had very little shade in the campsite. We decided to go to dinner in Sturgis. It is home to one of the biggest bike rallies in the country. During the event people come from all over to hang out party and show off their motorcycles. I have always had it in the back of my mind that I would have liked to do that one-day. So today was my chance and instead of some big Hog making all kinds of noise, I ride in my Prius that actually makes little to no noise. Not exactly what I had dreamed of but these days that’s how I roll! The town was actually very quiet. We found a place to eat, had a good dinner and then went back to the campsite. Bedtime is usually 10PM and that was exactly what time it was so we went to bed. Tomorrow is Mt. Rushmore and maybe Crazy Horse. Should be a great way to spend the 4^th!

The road out of the Badlands.

Out on Rim loop. (Gravel roads)

Finally a picture of all of us! Wait where are the dogs?

Antelope!

Ice cream at Wall Drug.

Dinner at Sturgis.

The Badlands

Wow another great nights sleep!  The plan today is to hit the road by 8 am. No small feet for four people and two dogs. Anyway we pulled out about 8:30 and headed off to the badlands. It was chilly and overcast….it felt great. The badlands were only about 4 hours away so not a bad day of driving. Once we arrived we took the usual picture at the Badland sign and headed in. Joanne bought a senior citizen pass for $10. This pass lets her and anyone else in the car in to as many National Parks for free for the rest of her life! What a deal. The same pass would cost me $90 and only be good for a year. If you are going on a trip around the country be sure and bring a senior citizen with you they come in very handy! J When we got to the park we did not have Internet of course but I did have a weak cell signal. Luckily it was just enough to get a text from Luke saying that they just went “live “ with “the news’! This of course was very exciting to me because I have been waiting to get the green light. Now finally I could tell the world that Lyn and I are going to be Grandparents! That’s right Luke and Caroline are expecting our 1^st grandchild sometime in December! Woohoo!!!  When Luke first told us the news he asked us to pick “grandparent names for our self. Lyn will be called Lola . It is a term used in the Philippines for grandmother. After some soul searching I decided that I would be called Bobaloo. Now I know what your thinking with three sets of grandparents surely this name was taken by one of the other grandfathers. Much to my surprise it was not! I cannot really put into words how excited we are but lets just say bring her/him on Bobaloo is waiting! Ok back to the trip. We had no reservations but found a campsite and after setting up decided to take a nap before we went out exploring. It was pretty hot and after about an hour we decided to go take an up close and personal look at the Badlands. We toured three areas took pictures and headed back for dinner at our campsite. Lyn fixed chicken, potatoes and mixed vegetables.  We ended the evening with an outdoor program on the grasslands and hit the bed around 10. The time has changed two hours from when we first started our trip. Tomorrow we will tour more of the Badlands and then head on to Rapid City SD. Mount Rushmore is on the horizion and we are headed that way.

Signing off for now,

Bobaloo

Woohoo!!!!

Dad, Joanne and Noel!

Joanne preparing to help set up camp!

Dinner time!

Loving the cargo rack!

Lyn and Joanne!

Camp Jellystone

Wow another great nights sleep. The temperature dropped down to 59 and we all slept really well. We woke up to cloudy skies with a prediction of off and on showers through out the day. Might have to skip the pool but still a great day to relax and get a few things done.  After breakfast we walked the dogs and then planned our day. We decided to make a Wal-Mart / Costco run and maybe grab lunch out since it was raining at the time. We were in a hurry to get back to the campground because they were showing Yogi Bear cartoons in the Yogi theatre at 3:30 and I wanted Lyn to see them. When we left Costco I managed to back out and hit another car with new handy dandy cargo rack. This is something that I had been worried about because it sticks out three feet behind my car and it is easy to forget that it was back there. (Or at least easy for me.) I got out and noticed that it was a pretty newish Cadillac. Oh dang this could be trouble! The owner got out and was very nice. We both looked at it and could find no damage. We think the cargo rack must have hit her tire and not touched her actual car. Thank God for that. We finally made it back to camp and was able to catch the last cartoon! I will have to admit they were much funnier when I was a kid but oh well it least we could check it off the list. Lyn and Joanne went to wash clothes and I decided to go to a local grocery store to get ice and charcoal. When I got back I noticed that my dad’s car was moved and there was water everywhere. It was kind of like it had rained really hard but just in one 40 by 40 foot area. Well come to find out my Dad had run into the camp water faucet and knocked it completely off which caused the water to shoot out about 30 feet in the air. In other words he created a man made “Old Faithful” right there at Camp Yogi! He went down to tell the office and they came down and fixed it right away. They said it had happened before but no one ever admitted that they did it. After that we had a camp neighbor come over and admire the 1964 Tradewinds camper. The guy said that his wife saw my Dad getting out of it and said that guy and that camper are old enough to have been at Woodstock so he came over to find out the deal was and really seemed to like the camper even if it never made it to Woodstock. After that we cooked out over an open fire. We went to bed around 10.  I think for a “rest day” we had done enough! Tomorrow we are headed to the Badlands National Park. Exciting times for sure!!

Relaxing!

Lyn and Jasper!

Lyn and her favorite blanket!

Yogi Bear cartoons!

Joanne trying to get over her "down day"!