Lots to see

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

We headed for Cody, WY. We needed some supplies so we took a side trip to Wal-Mart. We toured Cody for a bit, then headed south to Thermopolis. On the stretch of road from Cody to Thermopolis there wasn’t anything. I mean there wasn’t a home, a store, an animal, nothing!

There must have been about 40 miles of that. (Glad we filled up with gas earlier.) We called ahead for a campsite at the Country Campin’ Campground. Nice place, (they have internet service), and are also part of the Passport America. We took lots of pictures of “the countryside”. It was very interesting. It looked so dry and barren. I can understand why there wasn’t anything around.

Murtle, Taco and I will take a walk tomorrow for photo opportunities. Tonight Brad and I went to the Hot Springs in Thermopolis. It was very interesting. It smelled just like sulfur. The pictures that I took will not do it justice.

While at the Hot springs, we met a young couple that were a joy to chat with. They were traveling from Virginia just like we are. They had gone to the Badlands, Custer State Park, and were on their way to Yellowstone. We told them of our experience in Yellowstone. We told them where we were staying and they were looking for a place to camp. They did come to the campground, but wanted our contact information for the future. What a nice couple.

Murtle and Taco are ready for more adventures, so I guess we will have to find some place to head tomorrow. We are off tomorrow for parts unknown. (Haven’t decided which direction we are going in.)

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

This morning we packed up the camper and got ready to go. Sad to have to say good bye, but ready to head out. We decided to go through the Beartooth Pass into Yellowstone National Park. We were only about 110 miles from Yellowstone, so we thought we would have lots of time.

We headed west on 212 and took that right through to Yellowstone. Once we got to the Beartooth Pass, we started to climb up the Rockies. I mean CLIMB. The road was up, up, up. Brad hates heights, and without many guardrails, it was a hair raising experience. The views were awesome!! I must have taken at least 200 pictures just up the pass. There were switch backs, after switch backs. At times we (I) could see five rows of road below us. Just amazing.
We climbed, and climbed, and climbed to an elevation of 11,000 feet. The air was thin. I can’t believe that they would plow this road in the winter, but they do. At the top, we found a ski lift. There was also snow at the top in places. Murtle and Taco sat in the snow. Brad tried to start a snowball fight, but there weren’t any takers.

Then we started DOWN! I think I liked going up much better. Oh, the views were just as spectacular but not quite as scary going up. There were lakes at the top. We could see for miles, and miles. On the other side of the pass, we were in Yellowstone National Park.

Once in the park, we kept driving past some wonderful sights. Still up and down. We drove for about 50 miles in the park and saw geysers, and wild animals. The further we drove, the more people we saw. The traffic was outrageous. At one time we waited for an hour in a traffic jam. We found a pull off and decided to barbeque our dinner. (We had something simple…hot dogs!) I think we could have made a mint if we wanted to sell them to the parked cars waiting to get through.

Once we got moving again, we started looking for a campsite. All the campsites were full. We did find a gas station in the park, so we filled up. (Didn’t know when we would have the opportunity to fill up again!) We decided to drive out of the park and find a campground, so out the West Entrance. It was only 27 miles out of the park, but there was 7 miles of construction and it was all DOWNHILL. We had to wait for another hour just to get out of the park.

Just outside of the park is the Shoshone National Forest. Thank goodness they had campgrounds. We had to dry camp, but we were prepared. Another good thing was that the temperature was around 70 (this was the first time that we would not have to use the air conditioner). Some of the sites had electricity, but they were all taken when we got there around 8:30PM. (It was a long day of driving.) When I told Brad that if we drove for about 1 ½ hours more we could be back at Rod & Penny’s, he just about flipped!

This is grizzley country! They have cute containers for your food. Murtle thought that maybe she should sleep in one of them for the night, but I convinced her that she would be safe with us in the camper.

Needless to say, we did have a wonderful time. The views were terrific, and we did see many geysers, but we did decide to NOT go back into Yellowstone at this time.

Monday, July 16, 2007

Well, you will never believe where we went for dinner last night! Penny and Rod took us to Red Lodge, Montana and we attended the Pig Races. What a great place! We had a ball. Murtle went too. Penny said she would have a great time, and she did.

Now, I have to introduce you to a new addition to our journey. Nici won a pair of steers at the Rodeo that we went to. She said that she only needed one, so she gave “Taco” to us to travel with Murtle. So now we have Taco (the steer with an attitude). You will see both of them from now on in our pictures.

Taco came to the Pig Races also. The way the pig races worked were, you place bets, you fill your name in on a square, the roll of the dice determines the boxes, if you win you get half the money, the other half goes to a scholarship fund. (So far $73,000 have been awarded to local students!) What a fun thing. Those little pigs run around the track for weeds (not Oreo’s like other pigs race for).

There were two other couples that came for fun and entertainment. What a blast! Murtle won one of the bets. The pigs ran fast, the drinks went down smooth. We just had so much fun.

We decided that we should have our brakes checked on the truck before we went through Beartooth Pass in the Rockies. So today, we made an appointment in Billings, MT to have them fixed. Thank goodness we did because the truck did need new rotors and pads. While our truck was in the shop, Penny let us use her vehicle to get around in. We took Nici with us, she was in charge of NUVI (so we would not get lost) and we went to the Olive Garden for lunch, then Baskin and Robbin’s for dessert, then we found the garage again, and then got back to Penny and Rod’s office in Laurel.

Our truck is fixed and ready to head for the mountains. We are looking forward to continuing our journey. We have had a wonderful time here in Montana. What wonderful country, beautiful sights, outstanding people! It will be sad to leave, but we are anxious to continue. (I am sure we will be back for another visit.)

Tonight Uncle Lynn was back from Idaho. He bought a shirt for Brad, and gave Brad a cowboy hat. He kept asking Brad if he had been to the boot store to get his boots yet, but I told him that we had to buy new breaks for the truck and Brad had to wait for boots.

We did get a picture of the “Three Amigos”. All decked out in their new duds. Ride m’ Cowboy! (Do you see Brad’s feet? No, because he was in his white socks!!!)

We took our good bye pictures and said our good byes, gave hugs, and said we would be back. We will be leaving in the morning for the Beartooth Pass.