Pictures From Yesterday

We are in Jackson Hole, Wyoming tonight and have a great Internet connection. So, I'm including a few pictures from yesterday.

Yellowstone National Park

We started our day in Cody, Wyoming. We had stayed at a Mom and Pop type hotel last night which turned out to be a very roomy place. Everyone had a bed and plenty of room to move around.

We ate breakfast at a McDonald's with all of the locals and bikers that were in town and then headed for Walmart. You know that you have reached some sort of civilization when you find a good 'ole Walmart. That was a stop for poptarts, OJ, and waterbottles. We weren't sure of what our options would be for breakfast for tomorrow, so we thought a cold poptart would at least fill us up.

We headed into Yellowstone National Park about an hour later and were amazed by what we saw. There were lots and lots of Kodak Moments to say the least. The first wildlife we saw were some big horned sheep just standing on the hillside; we then watched them walk onto a large bank of snow. Then the excitement started. The bison were out. Jacob and I had to take a picture of everyone that we saw. Finally, there were herds of them. They weren't countable anymore.

At this point, we were on the Northeast point of Yellowstone Lake. We stopped at the visitor's center, and everyone got there passport stamped. We walked down to the lake and took some pictures. It's amazing that we saw, what I call, Christmas trees on the shore of the lake. Absolutely beautiful.

When we left the center we drove up to the upper and lower falls. They were breathtaking. These are the falls that are usually shown in pictures and on TV.

Originally, we were to drive the upper loop of Yellowstone, but we changed our minds. We were only about 15 miles from Montana and four of us had never been there, so we decided to go. We drive through West Yellowstone, Montana just to say that we had been there.

The next major stop was Fountain Paint Pot. Here we walked a loop around some boiling mud pools. The kids weren't too crazy about the sulfa smell, but they loved what they saw. We literally saw the ground boiling and spitting mud. One of the pools was named "The Dragon" and for good reason. The venting made a horrible roaring noise. I guess a dragon could sound like that.

The next couple of stops involved viewing geysers. The landscape changes so drastically here. Beautiful grassy fields, rolling mountains, boiling mud pools, and ground that has hydrothermal activity with spewing water. We eventually made it to Old Faithful. It erupts approximately every 93 minutes, and we watched twice. We knew that there was a webcam at the top of the visitor's center that looks out over the viewing area and of the geyser, so we called Bonny and Barry's parents, and they were able to see us. Technology is amazing!

In between the two eruptions, we walked into the Old Faithful Inn and ate a quick bite for dinner. For you Disney fans, this was one of the hotels that was a model for the Wilderness Lodge in Orlando. The similarities were obvious.

We left Old Faithful and finally exited the Yellowstone National Park and entered the Grand Teton National Park. We could see these mountains from Cody, but the closer we got, the bigger they got.

We did see a huge grizzly bear on our way out of the park. I quickly decided that he was big enough for about 5 bears and that I didn't care to see anymore. That huge thing sauntered right across the street. I guess it is his territory, and we are the visitors; I don't mind staying out of the way. My goal for the rest of the evening was to see a moose. We saw one on the way into the park, but there was no pull-off. He was just a blur in my lens. I have seen no moose today.

We arrived too late to go to the park's visitor center, so that is first on our list tomorrow. We are to take a raft ride down the Snake River before lunch. We are really looking forward to that.

We are actually staying in a cabin tonight in the park. We have stepped out of the door a couple of times and have had deer between us and our van. We have to abide by all park rules, so our food and drinks have to be stored in our vehicle. This cabin has no telephone, no TV, no kitchen amenities, no A/C, and no Internet. We are, however, close to a "guest lounge" that is a common room, and it has wireless access. So, we have been able to eek out a weak wireless signal in our cabin. Since it is so hard to have good bandwidth, I won't be posting any pictures tonight. I will try to post some extra tomorrow night. We will have full internet tomorrow evening.

Until then . . .

Moving Day

(Barry filling in again today.)

Just like the third round of the Masters golf tournament, today was "Moving Day". We didn't do very much but better position ourselves for tomorrow.

When I made the plans for this trip, I failed to fully investigate the travel conditions along our route. When you combine that with the fact that we were traveling over 400 miles, I began to worry about how long the day would be. Therefore, last night, I reluctantly asked my family for permission to leave the hotel at 7:00. They agreed and by 7:00, we were leaving Rapid City, South Dakota and heading west.

Our first (and really only) stop of the day was at Devil's Tower National Monument. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed being able to get out of the van. We got our National Parks Passport stamped (of course) and then set out on the 1.3 mile hike around the entire monument. Because we left the hotel so early, it was only about 9:15 in the morning when we started our hike. Therefore, it was nice and cool under a completely clear and blue sky. We really had a lot of fun.

Our lunch consisted of ham/cheese sandwiches made from contents in our cooler. We had a few pieces of pizza left from last night's dinner, so Jacob left it in the Ziploc bag and set it up in the dashboard for about 15 minutes under the direct sun. Believe it or not, it did heat up the pizza. At least well enough for Jacob to power down about three slices.

For the next 3-4 hours we drove through the beautiful landscape of central Wyoming. The view of the Big Horn Mountain Range getting closer and closer was beautiful. Until I remembered that I would need to drive up into it.

We left Interstate 90 and travelled along Highway 14 and went straight up into the mountain range. At the top, you had the option of descending the mountain range via Highway 14 or Highway 14A. I had earlier decided that I would take the more scenic of the two options, Highway 14A. About a 100 yards after making the turn on Highway 14A, there was a huge yellow sign. The sign had a map on it showing you the two choices (14 vs 14A) and used phrases such as "10% grade", "very steep switchbacks" and "you've made the wrong decision". (Okay, I made that last one up, but that was the message the sign was portraying.) Consequently, we backtracked and went down Highway 14. It was a difficult descent, but I'm glad that we went that way. I'm sure that 14A would have been even worse.

After all of that, we made it to Cody, Wyoming around 4:30. We've been really impressed with Cody. It's a small town and is easy to get around. And, the town is very clean. All in all, it's been a good place to stop. We ate at a local dive and then stopped at a local laundromat to wash some clothes.

Tomorrow, we begin two days of Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. It should be a lot of fun. There is a possibility that we might not have Internet access tomorrow night. So, don't panic if you don't hear from us. We're having fun.

Sunshine and Rain

So, today we started out where we ended yesterday. We made our way back to Mount Rushmore. We walked the Presidential Trail and took lots and lots of pictures of the four presidents. We learned a lot about the sculpture Gutzon Borglum. Samuel was so excited; I bet he read everything there was to read in the exhibit hall and had read every brochure he could find.

We ate a very good meal at the cafe with a view of the presidents. What is so amazing is that the monument can be seen from so far away and from just about any angle. One can read that the faces are 60 feet in length and the noses are 20 feet in length and that a man sculpting an eye can actually do the work from inside of that eye, but you still can't grasp what an enormous feat this was and what dedication it was to complete-a great memorial to four of our most prominent Americans. How deserving they are.

Between Jacob and I, we probably took 75-100 pictures just at Mt. Rushmore. We took one last picture before we left. Barry has been here before with his family and Barbara Jo was Elizabeth Ann's age at that time, so we took EA's picture and sent it to her Aunt Jo.

We left Mt. Rushmore and headed to Wall, South Dakota. Now you say, "What is in Wall, South Dakota?" Well, not much, except Wall Drug. It is the largest drug store in the US. We walked from room to room giggling at all of the STUFF that was crammed in. One could get anything from a homemade maple-glazed donut to a rhinestone belt buckle. The new attraction that had been advertised for miles was a T-Rex dinosaur exhibit. Yes, a roaring dinosaur at a drug store. You think CVS could top that!

From the Wall Drug store we were about 10 minutes from the Badlands National Park.The landscape was such a drastic change from what we had seen in the rockies, that there was no comparison between the two. This was a good weather day as far as thunderstorms are concerned. it is amazing for how many miles one can see out there. We watched 2 different storms develop and of course took lots of pictures.

We got out of the car to walk a very short trail. I was very reluctant because a storm was so close by, and the lightning was getting closer. We got over half way down the trail, and we started getting pelted with some of the largest raindrops I had ever seen. I'll tell ya, it was every man for himself. By the time we got back to the car and the laughing stopped, I claimed rights as the better forecaster of the bunch. Elizabeth Ann had had enough. She was ready to get her book stamped and move on. Of course, we laughed and laughed at each other and to say we were soaked was an understatement. We stayed wet for hours.

We finally made it to the National Park Headquarters and got our books stamped. We traveled more thru the park and made a few more stops for Kodak moments and at one point Elizabeth Ann had checked out. We are making comments about what we are seeing and taking pictures out of the windows and Elizabeth Ann says, "Does anybody have a brown crayon that I can borrow?" We crack up, and she is serious. At all of the park offices, there are junior ranger books with kid activities, well she was determined to get hers finished.

Anyway, we finally made it back to Rapid City and decide that we are not presentable enough to go into any civilized restaurant, so we pick up pizzas and head back to our hotel.

We are having a wonderful trip! Hope everyone back home is well

Till tomorrow . . .

Nebraska Off the Bucket List

(Barry is guest blogging tonight.)

Wow...what a day. We started in Cheyenne, Wyoming and ended in Rapid City, South Dakota. But, we did a lot in between. I'll try to back track and tell you the details.

Late last night, I decided to make a last minute change to our itinerary. See, I have travelled a good bit around this country, but for some reason, I have never set foot in the state of Nebraska. So, I decided that today would be the day that I checked that off of my Bucket List. So, instead of traveling north through Wyoming and ending up in South Dakota, we veered and spend most of the day in western Nebraska.

What a great decision.

We decided to make two stops in Nebraska. Our first stop was at the Scotts Bluff National Memorial. This memorial is near Scottsbluff, Nebraska and is a landmark on the original Oregon Trail. The information at the Visitor's Center was very interesting, and the view from the top of the bluff was spectacular. As you can tell from the picture, it was a picture perfect day. From the top, you could see for miles. All in all, it was a great stop.

Our next stop was at Agate Fossil Beds National Memorial. This was interesting, but it was not as good as Scott's Bluff. We decided that if we were giving Scott's Bluff an A+, this would get a C-. Interesting...but also forgettable. The most interesting part was the fact that the Park Ranger at the Visitor's Center reiterated time and time again that there were Prairie Rattlesnakes everywhere and to be very, very careful when we were out on the trails. Tabatha speculated that they were called Prairie Rattlers in an attempt to make them cute and cuddly, but it was not working. We did hike one trail and luckily, saw no snakes.

Driving through western Nebraska was beautiful as well. The rolling hills and prairie features were very nice.

We finally ended up in South Dakota and went to Wind Cave National Park. We were able to get into the 4:40pm cave tour. It was a cool 53 degrees in the cave. We had a good time and Tabatha was able to see her first Buffalo herd. (NOTE: The buffalo herd was not in the cave...they were grazing at ground level.)

By the time we made it to Rapid City, it was 7:00 and we were ravenous. We found a Ruby Tuesday and had a great meal. Our waitress grew up in Florida and completely understood our disappointment when we ordered Sweet Tea and she was forced to tell us that they didn't serve it.

We got to our hotel at 8:15 and surprisingly, my family voted to head to Mount Rushmore to see the ceremonial lighting of the carving at 9:00. So, we jumped into the van and made it just in time to see it. We were so glad that we made it. There was a wonderful video (narrated by Avery Brooks of Star Trek:Deep Space Nine fame) and a patriotic speech by one of the rangers. At the very end, he invited all veterans on stage. There were probably 200 of them and of course, received a long ovation from the several thousand in attendance.

Tomorrow is going to be a long day (we are going back to Mount Rushmore to fully enjoy it) and then we are off to Badlands National Park. We will even throw in a quick trip to Wall Drug if we feel that we are able.

That's all for now!

By the way, the other states that I have not visited are (in alphabetical order): Alaska, Delaware, Hawaii, North Dakota and Rhode Island. Tabatha voted that I attempt to mark Hawaii off the list next. And, take her with me.

Day 2, Rocky Mountain National Park

All,

So Barry took care of the first post. I hadn't decided rather to blog or not, but I guess we both will.

We woke up in Denver this morning to a nice 75 degrees. We headed west on I 70 and passed the Mile High Stadium were the Broncos play. Jacob liked that. We drove thru Winter Park and saw our first clear view of snow topped mountains. We then drove thru Granby and finally reached the Rocky Mountain National Park entrance. Of course, we had to stop and take a picture by the entrance sign.

We stopped at many of the "pull offs" for Kodak moments and finally settled in a little valley with a beautiful stream to have our pb&j sandwiches. We then took a walk out into the valley, all the while watching thunderstorms move in. The noise from the thunder in these mountains is amazing.

It started a heavy drizzle on us, but we pressed on climbing higher and higher. We are used to the Smoky Mountains. These mountains just kept going, so we did also. We finally reached the Alpine Visitor Center. The elevation was about 11,719 ft. and we could really feel it. I couldn't believe how hard it was to breathe.

The temperature had dropped to about 50 degrees, so we pulled out our jackets and walked around. There were several areas that were closed off due to excessive snow. It had just snowed two weeks ago and the area had received 250% more snow than usual.

Along the route, we saw several herds of elk. Something else we saw was a lot of dead trees. A ranger told us that a beetle has overtaken a lot of the forest. Any tree or shrub that was green, the beetles apparently didn't like.

We then drove thru a quaint little town called Estes Park. We considered it a glorified Gatlinburg. Very clean, but very touristy.

We drove north into Loveland, Co and had a wonderful dinner at a Cracker Barrel. Mom and Pap would be proud. After about an hours drive, we drove across the Wyoming state line and have settled in in Cheyenne for the night.

Tomorrow we head toward Rapid City, SD. The kids can't wait to see Mt. Rushmore.

Till then . . .

Day 1, Rocky Mountains

Hello all!

Can't believe that earlier this morning I was helping Dad spray poison on bugs. But, such is life.

So far, the trip has gone great. The drive to Nashville went well. Our flight to Denver was on time (in fact, it was a little early). We got all of our bags at Baggage Claim. The van that we rented turned out to be a 2011 Town & Country with leather interior and satellite radio.

And, get this....when we checked into our hotel (Residence Inn), she had upgraded us to the "Penthouse Suite" and when she rang it up, it came up $10 cheaper than the "regular room" I had booked. Now, don't get too excited. Y'all were probably thinking about the suite that the family had at the end of Home Alone 2. No....it is nothing like that. But, it does have two bedrooms, two baths, etc. All in all, not too bad.

The only bad thing that happened was we made one wrong turn. We were trying to drive into an area of Denver that had a really nice Super Target, a bunch of nice restaurants, etc. You get the idea. Well, we couldn't figure out how to get off the Interstate and get there. We ended up in Commerce City. That ended up being a nightmare. We stopped off at a Wendy's and it took them three times to get my sandwich right. (It was a Single with ketchup only. I guess my simplicity confused them.) Then, we went by a Wal-Mart Supercenter to purchase a cooler and food for the trip. The store was completely trashed. (We were now concluding that Commerce City is not a "good" part of town.) We found our items and then ran into another obstacle: severe mismanagement. There were only about 4 lanes open and each lane had at least 10 people waiting. It took us over 30 minutes to check out. But, the end of the story is that we have our food and we are ready to go.

Tomorrow we are heading for Rocky Mountain National Park and then spend tomorrow night in Cheyenne, Wyoming. There is a pretty good chance of rain tomorrow (about 60%), so I'm hoping that we might get some breaks in the rain when we in the mountains.

That's it for now!

Barry