May 28: Well we had our stay in Butte and learned a lot. But we were still in Montana so headed East. Next stop was Miles City, MT yup still in Montana despite 7 hours stop to finish including rest stops. But lots of continuing beauty and open spaces.

Miles City it turns out was the site of Fort Keogh, several train lines in the past, the Range Riders museum and the bucking horse festival. But wait there’s more….. the Vintage and Rustics store (best bacon ever per yelp reviews and my taste test).

This stop was a two day stop so we had a day to explore. First stop the Range Riders Museum. Omg the place was huge with multiple buildings and wings filled with local memorabilia, pictures, saddles and dioramas and recreations of what a Miles City street looked like including info on the sheriff marrying the local madam of the house of I’ll repute. Yup that too. Pictures of many many local couples over the years with tubes under each picture with info on the people in the picture. And the volunteers there were so friendly and knowledgeable. Fantastic museum that could take several days versus our couple of hours but we had more stuff to do. Did I mention I heard the Vintage store had fantastic bacon? Oh yeah and Jo was looking for a jacket. The store like the west in general was humongous with three floors of stuff and they had a bearskin rug with a head, and several stuffed animal heads and cowboy hats (none of which fit my cranium… good thing because they were wicked expensive). I convinced Jo to join me for bacon which because of our tardiness needed to be on a burger since breakfast stopped at 11. The bacon was delicious and Jo fell in love with a white enameled condiment caddy, our one purchase.

Next stop was Walmart for food and supplies. Amazing how Walmarts are everywhere. I did notice the absence of the obligatory pajama bottoms prevalent in New England. Lots of denim however. Now to the campsite to get ready for church since we would be traveling the next day on Sunday.

We found the local Catholic Church and on street parking. Lots of churches in Miles City. The mass was great with great music including a trombone. I’ve never been to a Catholic Church with a brass section but it was great. Annnd for the first time in years we had the blood of Christ. Was great to feel back to normal.

Back to the campsite and the sky looked bad so I quickly put as much away as I could before it got wet. Good move as the sky opened up and dumped massive rain and fairly good sized hail. Imagine being in a tin can being pelted by stones. Yup it was like that. Maddie was not happy.

Jo’s good weather charm worked again and the sun was out as we packed up. And off to see if we could move on to a new state. Things out west including states like Montana. Day 3 and still driving East in Montana…. “Look there’s Big Ben kids”. Next stop Bismark, North Dakota.

May 26: Well Glacier was great but both Jo and I looked at each other and said we had almost too much beauty. Neither of us had ever really seen the Rockies, or the expanses of the farmlands where 1000’s of acres were visible all around us 360 degrees. The grandeur and beauty of so many different landscapes was frankly beginning to be overwhelming. Weird I know but how we both felt. I don’t want to imply things we saw weren’t beautiful anymore but we both are excited to get back to the beauty of Maine and our kid’s faces.

Our day started out with the usual tear down of camp which included our screen gazebo which fortunately had dried out after a brief rain shower. God was looking down on us still.

Our destination this time was an overnight in Butte, MT. We had passed through Butte on the way to Gary and Jeannine’s house and marveled at the copper colored giant dirt wall on the side of a large bluff. Now we would get a chance to hear more about Butte and maybe that copper colored wall.

The trip to Butte was a fairly long trip and the first part was a different route than we came driving down the West side of Flathead Lake. This gave us a chance to drive through alternating affluent touristy areas with poorer areas that were part of an Indian Reservation. Reality interspersed with vacation time. It reminded me of our time in North Conway. Before I was in a medical practice I had been through North Conway multiple times as a tourist. The veneer of the strip and my experiences skiing and camping were designed to make me want to return by creating a positive vacation experience. Once I was in practice I took care of the people that shined and created that experience. Most were working for minimum wage and tips and lived in the outlying areas that tourists didn’t always see or if they did associate them with the glitzy fun strip that was North Conway. None of this was necessarily bad in my mind as my patients usually had food, heat and employment but they were living with affluence and vacation wonderland with no real chance to participate in that experience personally. Once again we saw the toughness of the life for many in the West and frankly the toughness of the people that made a living. Working hard. The West wasn’t all that different than the East once you got beyond the amazing beauty. Nice people working hard here and there.

We rolled into Butte with my Tundra once again managing the amazing climbs and downhill 6-10% grades like a champ. I was happy I had the oil changed though as my engine revved a bit at times. Even with relatively high speeds (no where near the 80 mph speed limit but faster than on the congested windy east coast roads) I managed 10 mpg. Thankfully I had upgraded my tank to 34 gallons so I rarely had to stop more than once for gas to be comfortable on the long stretches of roads with services.

The Butte KOA was right off I-90 in a remarkably green area despite being a stones throw from downtown. We were greeted by another set of Midwest verrry friendly staff and escorted to our site which abutted a reclaimed stream as part of a green way revitalization. It looked like the wildlife appreciated the work as there were ducks, geese, baby geese etc in the stream area. This green way was part of an overall attempt to clean up from years of mining silver and copper. Did I mention that big copper colored wall of dirt. Turns out. That Butte for many years produced as much as 3/4 of the entire world’s copper production in the millions of tons. Much of this mining back in the day and the processing of the copper resulted in some pretty nasty by products and toxic pools of chemicals and tailings. The copper mining today is much more environmentally friendly and the smelting and refining is sent to China. Yup we have the copper but because of the toxicity or refining send our copper to China where the rules are less strict. Butte is expecting and hoping the increased demand for copper as a part of the Electric Vehicle push. Now to make refining less toxic so we control the process to the finished product.

I mentioned the Greenway was right behind us and we started to walk it to get the kinks out of our legs from riding way too much. Well as we were passed by homeless people and saw sketchy stuff going on not far from our site, we decided to head back. On the way back once again Jo-Ann made me detour. This time it was to the Visitor’s center adjacent to our campsite. We were greeted by the usual Midwestern friendliness and got to read and see a great deal of pictures and info about the history of Butte and the mining industry. The reality was very much like the movies with intrigue, murder, claim-jumping etc as there were multiple different operations all working the small area of banking that is that wall we saw fighting for the best veins which Im sure often crossed into other groups territories as they were followed as much as a mile below ground. Yup a mile below ground. We don’t need no stinking OSHA. Truly amazing history. We both would have loved to stay longer to take tours of the mines and the homes and hotels that still exist today as historical sites. Amazing that so much history was involved in that copper colored wall visible from I-90.

Well our luck with the weather ran out as far as packing up the next AM. Sneakers soaked as well as a lot of the stuff I wasn’t able to store in the truck. Oh and it was 49 degrees. Brrr. Goodbye Butte you were interesting but time to get back on the road.

May 25: Well I’ve been off the blog post routine for a bit. Our trip to Glacier was an easy and relatively short drive from Phil and Gail’s. We made it to the West Glacier RV resort and checked in to an almost empty campground. It is a newish campground built in 2019.

And our site #1 was very spacious with a large lawn, fire ring and picnic table. 50 amp service and new bathrooms and laundry nearby. It is also located adjacent to the park which was a 2 minute drive away. We knew that on a normal year the entire going to the sun road isn’t usually open til mid July so with all the snow this year figured much of the road would be closed. I was actually happy that the road was open all the way to Avalanche and the trail to Avalanche lake.

The stay at Glacier was a 5 day four night stay so one of the longest ones. This gave us time to relax as well as tour versus the need to see it all in a day or two. One of our trips was to a nearby restaurant that friends recommended. While the food there was ok the waitress recommended we go to another restaurant down the street for dessert. Turns out a woman there makes all the pies including Huckleberry Cream Pie. We had a piece of that pie as well as a piece of raspberry rhubarb pie. The Huckleberry pie won by a landslide (by the way there was an avalanche of whipped cream on the Huckleberry pie). We would need to do some walking to get rid of those calories for sure.

As part of our relaxed pace we headed to Costco and. A godzillion dispensaries and stores. Costco for some folding wooden chairs for the Lakehouse first four then two more (we didnt already have enough stuff to cram into small spaces) annnnnd the endless quest for CBD oil. Maddie seems to be doing better as far as her hind end giving out and her appetite. After much driving and searching we found yet another version of pet CBD oil at a health food store. We will see. Once we are home in Maine we can have it mailed to us but not while on the road back and guarantee we will be where we think we will be when the shipment arrives. Dogs!!!!…

We also had time to take a surprise horseback ride our friends helped me arrange. Lovely scenery with a great person Vangie who gave us riding pointers and took us around some beautiful trails and took pictures for us of us.

We took a ride toward east Glacier (we were at West Glacier) and made it to the Isaac Walton Inn where there is still an active train depot. The Inn was built by the railroad back in the day to have extra engines idling waiting for trains that needed a push over the Continental Divide. The trains out here are plentiful and massively long so much so I thought one train must have been two trains before I realized we were passing the same one. No wonder the trains need a push. The trains go along some amazing cliffs and tunnels beside rivers that are an engineering feet. The pass they and RTE 2 go through was a pass that was discovered by John F. Steven’s age 36 from Gardiner, Maine. The Marias Pass had long been known to the Blackfoot Indians and white men were afraid to venture into their territory for years. Stevens braved snow, cold and the unknown following the Marias River until he found the low point known as the Marias Pass. At 5213 ft above sea level it wasnt all that low but lower than others and was selected to be the route for the Great Northern railroad and later Rt 2 that goes from the west coast to Maine through Canada at times making it an “International” road. No wonder they needed to build an Inn and switching RR yard to house extra engines not needed for all the trip but needed just to push trains over the divide. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marias_Pass. You will see a statue of William “Slippery Bill” Morrison was a prospector and woodsman who had squatters rights at the summit of Marias Pass. When he heard that the Great Northern RR was planning a track through his land he opened a bar in his shack on 160 acres. He was a Forest Ranger and at one point before or after this he was reportedly losing at cards and excusing himself from the table never returned. Another quote attributed to him was from a time when a visiting woman from away asked him what people did for a living in this God forsaken place. His response was “most of us make a comfortable living minding our own business” I am honored to share his name lol. Look him up. https://foresthistory.org/research-explore/us-forest-service-history/u-s-forest-service-publications/region-1-northern/the-flathead-story/table-of-contents/chapters/early-history-flathead-national-forest/

The last full day we decided to go as far as the going to the sun road was open. We made it to the Avalanche Lake part of the road and hiked 2 miles up (500 ft increase in elevation) to Avalanche Lake. Two miles seemed longer in the West than at home but was worth the hike. Cant imagine what Logan’s Pass and the even higher parts of the road must be like. Beautiful scenery.

We had beautiful weather while at GNP and packed up without incident to finally start the trek back to Maine. First stop Butte, Montana. Oh and we stocked up on some Huckleberry Jam. The truck and trailer are getting full lol.

May 21: Well we had a great 3 days visiting with Phil and Gail. They hadnt really changed since the last time we saw them perhaps 8-10 years ago. Too long. They graciously shared their home and family and we even got to be a part of their families 40th and 5th birthdays. While we were there we were able to visit downtown BigFork and Kalispel (Costco!!!). Our trip to their home had echoes of Phil’s “hit the deer” as we pulled onto the last leg of our trip and multiple kamikaze deer ran out into the road. Hit the deer means you are more likely to get hurt and hurt others if you swerve to miss the deer. As I have mentioned elsewhere I put deer whistles on the truck and think they helped at least once.

Electric Street in Bigfork was artsy and cute. Flathead Lake was humongous. Swan Lake where Phil and Gail’s beautiful home is was big but not too big. John and Evelyn you are in for a real treat staying in the guest cabin. So cute and beautifully done.

Once again we had weirdly perfect weather in the 80’s and dry. Jo has not been a rain goddess this trip so far.

Now on to Glacier National Park and The Going to the Sun Road or at least the part that is open.

May 18: After a great night with our best sleep in a few days we headed to our next destination….ACE Hardware! My friend Gary had suggested we try an ol filled electric heater he had. Our cousins had loaned us an electric heater to minimize propane use but given Jo’s noise hyper awareness at night it along with the propane backup and heat pump noise kept Jo awake. At 31 degrees outside all of these were working to keep us warm. We were warm but sleep deprived Jo more than me. At Gary’s house we tried the oil filled ‘fan less’ heater that made no noise (in all fairness it also wasn’t 31 but close to 40 i think so we needed heat). Without a fan the oil filled heater was silent except for a soft click when it came on. To make a long explanation come to an end, we ordered a similar heater to Gary’s at the ACE on our way to Bigfork and stopped to pick it up! Mission accomplished.

The next leg of our journey was to physician and nurse friends on Swan Lake near Bigfork and Glacier National Park. We had worked together in North Conway and occasionally saw them usually at funerals or weddings but had never been to their place in Montana since they retired a while back. The trip had always revolved around seeing them in Montana as our destination before Glacier and heading home. They, like Gary, were gracious allowing us to stay at their place versus another campground.

The stop at ACE was uneventful and off we went. Traffic was busy through Missoula but we made it through and out of town. When Phil and I spoke the day before to confirm our arrival he mentioned three words “hit the deer”. He meant that there are a lot of deer and swerving to miss one can get you in worse trouble than just braking and praying. We stopped at a rest area before starting up RTE 83 our final leg toward Swan Lake and within a mile had multiple deer in, beside and running toward the road. After an initial slight swerve I remembered the words “hit the deer” and cut my speed way back and headed on with Jo as my eagle eyes pointing out deer that seemed to be everywhere. All this while vehicles not towing trailers roared past at 70 mph. A bit of a white knuckled drive but we arrived without venison and parked in our friend’s driveway. I know there are skeptics but I do think the deer whistles I had put on our truck helped us at least once when a deer that was running toward the road lifted his head, looked toward the truck, and made an abrupt stop and turn to go back into the woods. Working or not for $10 worth every penny I think.

Another leg of the trip accomplished with hugs all around for and from our friends.

May 17: Well it was time to say goodbye to the vistas and geysers of Yellowstone. I had planned to hookup the night before but upon looking at my RV GPS with RV Life discovered it was taking me East before starting north and west, a 4 hour detour. Four hours less and I didnt need to leave in the dark early AM after all. Wondering if there was a low overpass or narrow tunnel that made it do that I googled RV routes out of Yellowstone and the most direct route was out of the North entrance with no pulling a trailer issues so off we went north. On the trailer hook up and takedown I have a very important order of things and being rushed isn’t a part of that. Our site did not allow me to hook trailer up without at least partially blocking one of the roads out of our area (did i mention it was only one of the roads. Well despite seeing my truck nosed out as a Class A bus RV decided to come down our road and sit idling waiting for me to finish. It was a hurried and fortunately not screwed up departure.

The trip out of the park to Gardiner Montana was uneventful though the downhill grades were the steepest I had descended on the trip with lot’s of sharp turns shared with oncoming tractor trailers. Tundra and downshifting again did a superb job with no burning brake smell.

As we crossed over the mountain and down into Montana we were met with smoke and haze from the Canadian wildfires. Still pretty but muted scenery with towns appearing more and more like the old west I imagined. One or two story flattish clapboard sided storefronts. Really wanted to stop but was on a mission to get to a friend’s who I hadn’t seen in 50, yes 50, years.

I mentioned I wanted to stop on the way but wanted to get to Gary’s well the dogs again made me do a in city traffic stop in Missoula at a Walgreens. Diesel needed antibiotics for his sinuses ugh and we had our FL vet call him in a prescription. You don’t want all the details about how we knew he needed them lol.

After rest stops and seven hours of driving (and shopping) we arrived at Gary and Jeanine’s home where we were met with hospitality, a great dinner, and stunning views. Beautiful all around. After keeping them up catching up way past all our bedtimes we called it a night.

Great day that I am so happy I was able to add to the itinerary.

May 16: Day 4 in Yellowstone started out with me running a 10 o’clock video meeting for my part part time job. After that it started hailing and raining but Mr optimist wrassled a very tired (heat adjustments I make during the night still do keep poor Jo awake) Jo out the door and off we went to today’s destination, The Grand Teton National Park just south of Yellowstone. When I say just south nothing out here is “just”. It’s just very big out here. We drove about two hours through some beautiful landscapes. Once at the Grand Tetons I have to say they were indeed “Grand”. One of the peaks “Grand Teton” is the second tallest peak in the U.S. at 13,775 feet. The mountains are continuing to be pushed higher with major earthquakes arising from the Teton fault line. This fault line is capable of generating a 7.5 magnitude quake. I read this after I came home but felt no tremors beyond those I had after I walked into my trailer hitch that sticks out about 1 1/2 feet. I was still gazing at my pictures and turned to walk around the back of my truck and walked into it. I fell skinning multiple areas on my right hand and knee along with a bruised/sprained left fifth finger. Thankfully being the frugal person that has kept every first aid kit from every car that came with one so I had antiseptic scrub and bandages. My pride was the worst of all the injuries as I laid on the ground for a few seconds to assess the damage with bystanders at a scenic overlook. I thought they meant I should make a scene. Oddly no one came over to see if I was OK though I hustled off quickly,

Well after getting patched up we headed to town for a lunch where we took out sandwiches and sat looking out over Lake Jenny at the Tetons. Blue sky overhead as all the rain had gone away.

After lunch we toured around to the base of the Tetons and with Jo’s insistence we took a detour from my route and found an absolutely gorgeous overlook. Thanks Jo.

The trip back to camp was uneventful and as I write this heard from a neighbor saying we had a new water feature in the front yard orrr we have a leak in the main going into our house. Our super fantastic cousin and caretaker of our place when we are away went over to check the leak at 10 PM. I told Rocco it could wait as our neighbor said the water stopped after he shut of the main near the street but he went over tonight and sent a video, Just a huge relief to have someone as great as him watching our place. Thanks Rocco.

Now to get ready to go to our friends Gary and Jeannine’s in Montana in the AM.

Thanks Jo for making make the detour to this view

We started Day 3 somewhat slowly. We had reservations to take a tour out of the Old Faithful Inn (where we had reservations for dinner the night before and didn’t make. I’m definitely over it and a bit sheepish knowing the cause. I went north and down the west side in case the West thumb road was still closed. We got to see some new country side which was very interesting as we got into the hot springs and geyser areas. As we drove along you could see steaming water coming out of river bankings into the river. These inflows usually had laid down some beautiful yellow and reds from minerals and thermophilic bacteria (heat loving), More and more sandy areas with steam rising started showing up the closer we got to the Old Faithful area. Many areas that were desert like wastelands that had dead trees that clearly had thrived there in the past until the hot outflows had covered them up with sand and the trees had absorbed the contents of those flows. The bottoms of the dead trees were all white about two feet up the trunk. More of the why later.

We arrived at the Old Faithful Inn for our three hour tour (not on the SS Minnow) and walked into The Inn and were somewhat awestruck by the massive cathedral soaring ceiling in the lobby. And all the massive logs that held the structure up. We discovered later that it is the largest log hotel in the world. We went through two massive entrance doors that are original to the Inn which was built starting in 1903 and finished in 1904. There have been wings added since much bigger than the original tiny rooms. But once finished in 1904 it had electricity, steam heat and indoor plumbing. A marvel for the day in the middle of the wilderness no less. There are all sorts of window pane shapes across the building change the shadows in the rooms to mimic the way the light comes through the trees per the architect. It is a truly amazing building and story. The original cost of a room was $4 a night the equivalence of a months salary for the carpenters that built the hotel but still a bargain at around $75 at todays value. If architecture and ingenuity by the craftsmen that built the Inn interests you the National Park Service site has a nice article by Karen Wildung Reinhart.

Our tour driver came in and introduced himself. He is about our age and from Wisconsin and has been giving tours and driving busses in Yellowstone summers for twenty years (his wife has also driven there). When we followed him outside to the yellow very cool looking antique bus we discovered we had a very intimate 6 of us plus an employee. Employees get to go for free if there is an open seat. Tom explained that the yellow bus we were riding in with a removable canvas top was built in 1936. Yellowstone used to have as many as 98 of these busses in the early years but once they opened the park to automobiles ridership dropped and they sold all the busses. In 2007 they purchased eight of these busses which were built by the White Company. They were Model 706 busses with manual transmissions with no synchromesh meaning the gears would often grind when drivers shifted earning the drivers the name of Gear Jammers or “Jammers”. The eight busses put back in service had the upper bodies removed and restored and placed back on new F450 chassis and equipped with power steering and automatic transmissions. No grinding gear sounds for us. We took a 3 hour Firehole Basin Tour which involved going to many of the active thermal features on the west side of the park. He explained the word hole attached to names like Jackson Hole or Firebasin Hole meant valley. And we were indeed in a river valley. We saw mud pots, geysers, steam vents and other thermal pools etc. Some of these pools had bacterial carpets where the bacteria created amazing blues, yellows, oranges, yellows and more. No jumping in any of these as some were as hot as 170 degrees and some so acidic they could burn through boots and in turn your skin. We did not dip our toes once.

After the tour we stayed to watch old faithful which has changed in terms of its regularity since an earthquake in the 70’s. It still went off within 5 minutes of the predicted time (Ive had watches keep worse time). Pretty spectacular display as another huge geyser was going off for around 5 minutes across the street. Great show.

We discovered that the West Thumb road was open and other than a few stops for construction got us home about 20 minutes earlier than going the AM’s route. We actually saw the car being pulled out of the snow bank long after the event was over that closed the road the night before on our way home from this days touring probably as the result of a 24 hour crime investigation keeping it there. Sadly it appeared drugs may have been involved with the death of a woman found in the car per the news reports. Very sad touch of reality on our fun trip.

Oh and about those white bottomed trees, it turns out the thermal waters have minerals in them that cause geyser bases to rise as they are laid down over the years. These minerals eventually kill the tree when they seep into the ground around the trees but not before the base of the trees are turned white by these minerals in the trees and the dead trees trunks are in essence cemented into the ground. They are called Bobby sock trees. Another factoid is that essentially all the trees in Yellowstone are lodgepole pines. These trees can survive in the poor soils, tolerate drought and have a unique way of surviving the all too common fires in Yellowstone. The trees produce two types of pine cones. The first is a regular pine cone that drops and opens releasing seeds into the ground the same year they are dropped. The second is a pine cone that is sealed shut and only opens after being exposed to very high temperatures like those in a forest fire ensuring that there is auto reseeding and regrowth without any replanting needed. You can see huge numbers of the same age new pines growing all over burnt areas none planted by the park service. Ok I will stop now with the nerdy factoids but I thought the pine trees were another great design in the Grand Design!!

One more day in the park before we leave for Montana and visits with friends of old not old friends. LOL

PS I think if you double tap a picture it will get bigger and show more details.

Day 2 started with brisk but not freezing temps. Had a bit of a tough time regulating the temperature at night in the Airstream. We have two roof mounted AC units that function as Heat pumps when it is cold. Like all heat pumps they start to lose efficiency below 40 degrees and will need defrost cycles as they ice up when really cold outside. That process we found out isnt a quiet process and leads to bumps and noises as they start and stop. So I need to figure out additional ways to control night time temps as they will be near or at freezing every night we are here. I was able to supplement with an electric heater that my great cuz Chip loaned us but because of our concerns about burning the pups I had it on the counter where it doesnt sense how cold it is near the floor so doesnt come on all the time. And let me be clear I do have a propane furnace and two 40 Gallon Propane tanks on the front of the trailer. I am however frugal and the electric is included free in the nightly campground rate and I have to pay to replace the propane so I wanted to avoid using the furnace. Maybe not a good idea.

We decided to tour the park near us and then later go to the other side of the park for Mothers Day dinner at the Old Faithful Inn. We saw many buffalo (Really should be called American Bison as we have no buffalos in the US except maybe water buffalos in a zoo). We also toured the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone with absolutely stunning views. The falls were created when the hot magma dome below Yellowstone heated granite like hard rocks and by cooking them made them soft and easier to erode. It is not at all related to THE Grand Canyon in Arizona. I will include some pictures of that valley. Gorgeous. After touring a bit and getting gas at the station in the park near us that was open we went home to get ready for dinner as we had 5:15 reservations and the Inn is 1.5 hours away. Yup Yellowstone is huge and spread out.

The roads in Yellowstone consist. Of a big circle with roads coming off at the North, East, South and West going to those four entrances, There is another spoke that was listed as closed I think to avoid bothering Grizzlies coming out of hibernation as many other scenic roads are in the park for the next few weeks. Old Faithful Inn is at 8 oclock on that circle an we are off the East entrance road at 3 oclock. To get from 3 oclock to 8 oclock takes around 1.5 hours as I mentioned above. Well we left around 3 to give us time to mosey around Old Faithful by arriving early for dinner. When we got to the West Thumb road where the road splits to go there or go to the South entrance we found out that the road was closed. I misread the sign that showed an alt route there by going toward the south entrance (Jo politely disagreed with me but I kept on). When we hit the south entrance I realized Jo was correct (again). Now we were 2.5 hours away from the Inn as we would have to backtrack to our campground and go the long way from 3 to 12 to 8 oclock counter clockwise on the BIG circle. If we had gone that way initially if we had known the West Thumb was closed it would have been 20 minutes longer> Now it was 2.5 hours and impossible to make our dinner. In my defense even if I had listened to Jo we would have not made our reservation time but they might have squeezed us in. UGH. So Mothers Day was spent at home with an impromptu pizza and salad. Sorry Jo.

I was not happy that the Park hadnt put signs at the junction near our site saying dont turn left turn right and let the Ranger at the South entrance know. She gave a cryptic “we closed it suddenly sorry” answer. We later found out there was a domestic disturbance on the road with a shooting that closed the road. Guess we are lucky the worst thing that happened was we missed dinner. 😦

Hoping I get heat figured out tonight so sleep is accomplished without noisy heat pumps. More to come on figuring out how to heat and sleep later. Please know however that the days have been high 50’s and sunny so far and cool temps refreshing so not at complaining about our brief exposure to snow and cool. It’s actually been nice since we know it’s temporary and the snow covered mountains have been beautiful to look at.

May 13: Well the rain followed us and while we were able to decamp with minimal rain it started a steady rain as we left the Lazy R in Ranchester, WY. Kind of sad it was cloudy as it obscured what would have been a glorious sight as we drove into the snow covered mountains we saw the night before. Not knowing the road well I was ready for a steep climb. And it was. As we went back and forth on switchbacks my trustworthy Tundra did well pulling and didn’t overheat. I suspect one of the reasons was that the temperature was 41 degrees. Then 40-38-36-34-33 and the rain changed to snow that was heavy and wet though not accumulating. My fear was that it would start to ice up on the way up with minimal safe turn arounds as many weren’t plowed out and there were several at such a steep grade that even stopping there would be scary. When we passed a sign saying we were about 8100 ft I breathed a sigh of relief. Well that sign didn’t mean we were done climbing but after about 15 minutes of continued up and down we were headed down. Annnd the weather turned partly sunny and no precipitation with dry roads. It was a lonnnnng steep, switchback laden downhill trip but using low gears and a couple of stops to let people pass we arrived at the bottom (5000 ft above sea level lol). Brakes and Tundra not overheating and intact with only some shifted stuff in trailer. Phewwww. Oh and when I wasn’t shifting and checking gauges, the views going down were just amazing. How do they keep being so amazing and even more impressive.

We drove into Cody, a really nice town that very intentionally, I’m sure, looks like what I expected western cowboy towns to look like. I mentioned we should stock up so stopped at an Albertsons and got water and a few supplies. Then we headed into a valley/pass with huge mountains beside and in front of us as we drive along a beautiful river. 60 plus miles later of minimal civilization we arrived at the east gate into Yellowstone. Almost there? Nope another 25 plus miles of steep climbing and downhills with ongoing beautiful scenery. A bit frustrating as I had to keep my eye on the road and anticipate downhills to keep my speed slow before descending. I really just wanted to gawk at the scenery lol. Well we arrived at the Fishing Bridge RV campground (7900 ft a live seal level) and parked. Wow what a day’s journey. At the registration desk I was read a verrrry long list of do’s and dont’s mainly in place to protect from bears (no food or grills etc left out) and no fires to protect the landscape from the many examples of forest fires we saw coming in. We found our back in site and with Jo womanning the walkie-talkie and guiding me, we easily backed in. Let the booking up to power etc begin. Oh and the leveling I still haven’t gotten down lol. More on that later. Thankful to God for our safe but scary journey (clearly was listening to my mumbled prayers) and the beauty all around us. What a country we live in. More to come on our four day longest stay yet.

Thanks for reading and your kind words.