Road Trip - Night 8 through Day 10

HOW IS IT DAY 10 ALREADY?!?!?!

This is very worrisome.

Yellowstone Interpretive Dancing

After arriving at the beautiful Yellowstone National Park (the first ever national park), we promptly took in a roadside viewing of a mother grizzly with 2 baby cubs.  Obviously this was an amazing discovery and "so" Yellowstone of us.  I mean this is what it's all about, right?  Our first thoughts were something along the lines of: "awwww, omigod a baybeeee" quickly followed by: "THIS IS NOT A ZOO! GET BACK IN THE CAR!!!" 

We didn't know this at the time but the brochure in our car says that in average 1 person dies every year from a grizzly attack and mostly because a mother doesn't want to put up with roadside "aw'ing" over her cubs...and she really doesn't have to.  

Moral of the story: we're lucky to live another day. Thanks Bear.

Shortly after, we unloaded for one more quick stop to take in the beauty around us.

Jeff skipping rocks

Pioneers

the water was freezing!

The night was falling so we drove the 69 miles to Old Faithful Inn. To spend the night in? HA! Yeah right. We were there to park for the free parking lot located directly behind it.  Close enough! Free is a really great thing.  

The group hastily got ready and headed out to eat at the restaurant, passing geyser after geyser along the way. 

It was amazing.  Unfortunately, the wait for us to eat any time soon was not, leaving us no choice but to eat at the Bear Pit, Old Faithful's very beautiful bar next door.  It was LOVE at first cocktail.

Back at the RV, we decided to make a little memoribilia from the night's fun and string our wine bottle corks as Christmas Ornaments. Voila!

Day 9 began with an early morning walk to Old Faithful herself.  Sitting and waiting for the rupture, I knew that the anticipation was high, but I could never fully understand just how excited and in awe of a 100 foot steaming hot water spout I could be. Consider my breath...taken.

After that, we headed to Madison Campground (no cell service = no blog updates). 

We were the last RV admitted and immediately after parking decided to go on a murder-walk, or hike up Purple Mountain. 

"this is going to be GREAT!"

"I am dying."

For the first 30 minutes of hiking, I feared for my life. There was no shortage of Bear Warning signs. I was not prepared to face a bear (and not back down or run) AND I didn't have any BEAR SPRAY! Who doesn't have bear spray?! Unfortunately, I didn't even know that stuff existed pre-excursion. 

"Maybe I should have an entire gallon of water really quick"

Forty minutes into the up-hill hike, I tossed all bear concerns to the wind and sacrificed myself to the mountain.  I was SO tired, SO out of breath (let's blame the altitude), and my hip (yes, I'm 29) felt as if it was slowly unscrewing from my leg.  I held on as long as I could, but had to stop after just a few hundred feet short of the finish (the boys went on to the top as Jac and I sat as bear bait).

That night we had cause for relaxation and celebration.  Nobody had been eaten by a bear and my hip had not completely unhinged from my leg! Success!  

Pure exhaustion

Jeff and Ed went swimming at the most amazing watering hole where Bison lingered about 200 yards away and we all grilled and rested our weary bones.

Jurassic Park

Day 10 the achy bones crew packed up, ready to swallow up the last sights of Yellowstone. On our list: Bubbling Mud, Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, Hayden Prairie, and Water Falls. 

Bubbling Mud, there you have it.

Note: Bubbling mud and anything else sulfur-related smells like poop

Hair necklace.

I had a couple fly-aways

Everyone needs to go to Yellowstone, visit Old Faithful and stay at the Madison Campground!

Next Stop: Driving through the Grand Teton (breathtaking!!!)

Serene, yes...but don't be fooled. Someone is clipping their toenails. LOL. (For the record - I did not know this before snapping the picture)

and into Thayne, Wyoming for a massive 1 year celebration of Jac and Ed's wedding anniversary! 

Til Day 11,
L

Road Trip - Night 7 & Day 8

"Bud Light?! What does it look like to you?! Like I'm on a G-ddamned DIET?!"

Said the woman next to me in the Hoot n' Howl after her husband asked if she wanted a Bud Light.  Wyoming women are an interesting breed.

Last night, we pulled up to our first ever complete RV site.  It had laundry, showers, toilets, electricity and water.  It was not at all as serene or interesting as our past sites, but it served it's very necessary purpose.  Things needed charging and clothes needed washing!

After pulling in, the crew showered and ran across the street to the Bozeman Trail Restaurant or the Dead Animals Everywhere Restaurant. Whichever you prefer.  Eating my Mexican salad while a body-less moose, bear, pheasant, deer, wolf and buffalo watched me was kind of odd, but not at all as odd as how much the entire restaurant watched from behind them.  No matter how many flannels we wear, we stick out in these parts.

tired Jeff.

Bear friend.

Bozeman closed at 10, so we crossed the deserted highway and went to the Hoot n' Howl Bar and Lounge.  Walking through the door, records scratched and everyone turned to stare.  Hellooooo alien people!  We immediately ordered drinks, listened to the band and engaged in some extremely stimulating conversation with locals who approached us to see if we were foreign. 

"My husband bet you were foreign, but I guessed you came in from Seattle."

oh.
 

No dancing.

"Everyone thinks we're weird!"

"SHOT!"

Jack Danny Band

Video proof:

In one convo, I was able to literally make a girl slack-jawed merely by telling her my age and childless nature.  She COULD NOT believe a 29 year old would NOT have 3 or 4 kids. Mind = blown. 

"All my friends have one in the yard and one in the oven. And they're 24!"

Next, she expressed that she would NEVER go to New York because of all the people. In fact, she moved from one small town to an even smaller one because not everyone knew her name in the first one or something.  Her certainty and stubborness on the subject kind of ticked me off, so I tried a tender cajoling approach.  But the deal was done.  She was not interested in seeing our part of the world. Ever.

The rest of the night was a blast. The band gave us their CD because being from NY means that we can obviously help them hit it big, and drama ensued around us when one of the young alcoholic boys kissed another girl on the cheek while he was engaged to another. Oh boy! Drama!  It was actually funny to see the girls acting all worked up while their "men" could barely open their eyes or walk straight. 

Yeehaw!
Today is a driving day. Just us and the open road until we reach Yellowstone tonight. I can't wait!!!!

Oh and we reached 9666 feet elevation!! And we didn't pass our or die! We actually ate lunch in the RV there and played a little frisbee near the snow.

window bug juice can't even ruin this view.

xoxo
L

Road Trip - Day 7

I have a very important announcement to make: we have conquered Mount Rushmore!!!! 

And we even started a trend of star-jumping at the foot of it.  Seriously, some lovely asian tourists totally stole our idea and simultaneously captured star-jumping pictures at the same time as us. It was pretty awesome.

The verdict of Mt. Rushmore is this: it is touristy. It is full of people. It is surreal. It is worth seeing. But it is not worth spending more than an hour or so at.  Knowing that we had to keep on trucking to Yellowstone made it all the more enjoyable.  Mt. Rushmore drive-by!

We're in Wyoming, on our way to Buffalo right now!

xoxo
L

Road Trip - Day 6 & Morning 7

Well, I don't know how today will ever be topped. I woke up on the top of a cliff, ate breakfast above some of the Badland formations, and then saw...A WHOLE SLEW OF PRAIRIE DOGS!!!! Aaah! They were so much smaller than I had imagined (I've imagined about them a lot). And they talked to eachother. And they waddled when they ran. And shook their tail-feather before burrowing. And I loved them.  We also saw an incredibly nimble mountain goat along with a few deer/antelope-y things.  No buffalo, sadly. Oh, and The BadLands themselves.
So, let's see.  Yesterday we headed this direction but not before encountering loads of nothingness sparsly decorated with billboards and signs advertising a place called Wall Drug.  Hmm..

It was super close to our final destination, so we decided to pop in and have a look-see.  THANK Heavens we did!

May I have this dance?

After thoroughly getting our fill of posing with their weird animal statues, we went on down to the visitor center and learned where we could park our RV for the night.  Lesson of the Day: Always ask the locals questions regarding the best places to camp out because you just may end up in the most amazing spot ever. We did!  They know a LOT.

So after that, we weren't sure how to proceed.  We were hungry, excited to set up camp, but also still craving a little area culture. What better way to see what the locals are about, than to hit up the Badlands Bar? Exactly.

I highly reccommend this place.  All of the drinks were under 5 dollars. Barefoot wine and beer were 3.25.  Absolute and sodas were 3.75 and specialty daiquiri's were 5. Amaaaazing. 

Just a couple friends. Hanging out.

local beer

After the bar, it was time...time to meet the best "campsite" (it was really just us all alone on a cliff) ever.  We pulled up to a rope gate, let ourselves in and then had the biggest panic attack of our lives when we saw the bluff that was about to be our home for the next 15 hours.

It was just the 4 of us, some far-off roaming cattle, and beauty as far as the eye could see.  My favorite night so far :)  But, I have a feeling I may be saying that a lot.

Dinner!!!

This morning it was a coffee-and-eggs-while-enjoying-the-peace-and-serenity-around-us kinda morning.  I truly cannot imagine discovering this sort of thing.  Even seeing it now when we knew and planned to see it doesn't stop our jaws from dropping.  And drool from dribbling onto my shorts.

After breakfast,  we were off to the Badlands National Park.  15 bucks per car/good for 7 days (ha!) of entry!

Great.

Taking some time to play with pebbles.

We're on our way to Mt. Rushmore now and then we will be back on the road towards Yellowstone National Park after that! Stay tuned!!!
xoxo
L

Road Trip - Night 5 & Morning of Day 6

First, I would like to say: I LOVE SOUTH DAKOTA.

Second, I would like to bring up a sign I read on the morning of Day 3 in Marseilles, Illinois. As we sipped our coffee in A&J's Restaurant, I noticed a wooden sign with these words scrolled on it: Good morning! Let the stress begin.

For some reason, I haven't been able to get it out of my head.  I understand that it is meant to be funny but it's almost unintentionally hilarious. Is there really stress in Marseille, Illinois? The town situated right off the gorgeous illinois river, with a population of zero? How are they stressed...enough to put up that sign or even at all?  Is it true that everyone, everywhere is stressed? So amazing.

Okay, so back to South Dakota.  The weather, the people, the scenery; I love it. I mean, I LOVE IT.  I may try to marry it. 

We arrived last night, after almost completely running out of gas in the middle of field-world and closed-gas-station world (just past tons-of-gnomes-on-lawn-world) and thank GOD we made it because we went on the find the BEST campground, with the best lake and the best electricity.  Okay, any electricity is pretty much the best.  We had the whole place to ourselves.

After taking in some outside-of-the-rv fresh air, dinner prep began. Pasta night! Mac and Cheese and Whole wheat pasta with chopped tomatos and red sauce. And sausages, or as Ed calls them "snags" (have I mentioned how awesome Australian abbreviations are?) for the boys.

Then, it was time to...HAVE THE BEST NIGHT EVER!!!!  Too bad we did not take phone pics. Oops!  All I can say is that it involved lots of wine, lots of dancing, and lots of star-jumps.

This morning, we decided to take advantage of the cool, South Dakota lake before us.  I only went in up to my bathing suit bottoms, but it was SO nice.  The weather here is very different than the rest of the places we've experienced thus far. It's breezy, cool and not humid at all!

The breakfast menu for Day 6 was: egg whites and tomato sandwiches compliments of Ed and Jac.  They were delish!

We've changed the plans a bit for today and are now on our way to the Bad Lands before seeking out Mr. Mount Rushmore.  More updates to follow!  But first, here's the key to RV fitness and energy releasing.  You Are. Welcome.