Saturday, August 8, 2009

Yellowstone and the search for a room...

 Our trip through Yellowstone was wonderful. The park is large and a lot to see. This one like all the others show signs of a fire. We were there most of the day about 6 or 7 hours. The weather was on the cool side right around 60. We entered from the north drove south then east and exited there. The main attraction was old faithful. When we pulled in the parking lot everyone was there too. Had a hard time finding a parking spot but finally did. As we walked up to watch her blow the place was packed. They had the bleacher full so we figured we arrived just in time. We looked for a clock or something maybe showing when the last one went off but couldn't see one. We knew it was every 68 to 98 minutes. We stood around and Gary went and got us a sandwich.  $6.00 for cheese, tomato, lettuce on white bread. We needed it. So there were a few puffs and then off she went. Seemed to stay blowing for a while. The only thing is from the direction we were standing we mainly saw steam. Still a site to see.
We left heading for the Badlands. We pulled up to Cody Wy to check on a room. The only one left cost a arm and couple of fingers. We decided to head to the next town but before we did we saw what I thought was a restaurant with live music. We decided to have dinner there but once we walked in we knew different. It was one of those dinner shows. We asked if we could just have dinner and leave since we wanted to drive to another town. They called over the owner, Bill who would love for us to stay but if we just wanted dinner that was fine. They were going to serve in 15 minutes. He told us how to get to Billings the fast way and we wouldn't have a problem finding a room. So we stayed for dinner and the show. Had a great time. They had a fiddler 16 years old who was great. A couple yodelers  and a comedian. Meet a couple from Canada who are taking a cross country trip too. They have been gone for 6 weeks but most of that in Canada. They expressed their love for driving on the rim of the mountains too. 
So we drove to the next town of Billings which was really out of the way but the roads were better. We didn't have to drive through the winding roads of the mountains.  Umm no vacancy. The next town isn't too far. Ummm no vacancy... Ok the next town is 80 miles and it is past midnight. I was willing to sleep in the car but Gary pushed on. We arrived at Sheridan WY around 2:30. 3 cars pulled up and took the last 3 rooms. We were able to call Choice Hotels to reserve it for us. We had to do that on Gary's phone cause mine decided to stop working. So Version was our first stop this morning. We requested a late checkout and the clerk would only give us an hour. Well at 9:30 this morning the house keeper was banging on the door! We didn't get a lot of sleep last night so we will check in early today to make it up. Don't think we will really do anything today except head to South Dakota. We are not wide awake people right now. ;). We figured out why all the bikers, Sturgis is having the bike rally this week. Tomorrow it is over. I hope they all go home so we can have a place to sleep. 
Shouldn't complain too much. This is the first time we had this problem.  
Can't post pictures now. Will try again later this evening. 

Friday, August 7, 2009

Livingston MT


Just outside Yellowstone is Livingston MT. The last large town before the park. We drove here yesterday and arrived early around 3:00. We did drive into the storm this time. We had just settled in the room when the hail starting falling. Maybe dime size and didn't cause any harm. But we both jumped to the window when we heard it.
So we just hung around here went to town for dinner. Busy little town. Hard to find a parking place. I think there is  a couple bike things going on around here. The motorcycles are everywhere and there are bicycles pulling carts on the roads. I overheard one at a store saying they were in the group biking. I don't know how far they are going but we see them everywhere. 
9:15 and we are now ready to head for the park. We think it will be an all day thing.

MISS YOU GUYS! 
LOVE YA

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Glacier National Park








Yesterday was mainly spent in the car. We drove through Glacier NP. It was a pretty sight. There was construction going on so it took a little while longer to get to the other side. We entered the West side and out the East side. We didn't mind being stopped for the construction. They are putting much needed walls up along the rim. You know how we feel about driving the rim but seems we are doing that a lot. The price you have to pay to see pretty!
We then drove towards Yellowstone,made it to Helena. Gary thinks we will make it today but it may be too late to go through. On the drive here we noticed a lot of flat land in the Northern part of Mt and then very hilly the rest of the way. Once in Helena we thought we may have driven into a bad storm by the look of the sky, but never heard or felt any signs of one. 

Question: What kind of animal is in the picture?