Saturday, August 4, 2007

The rest of the story.....

Well, if you have been keeping up with mine and Joyce's tour of the mid-west, then you know that I did not have internet access for the remainder of our trip. I have been home now for 2 days, but simply haven't had the time to finish my update. I will try to touch on most of the trip today.
All I can say is that we saw some of the most beautiful landscapes, waterfalls and bodies of water! We saw a black bear, two moose, a baby eagle, pronghorn deer, and lots of bison and elk.
On Sunday, we went to Buffalo Bill Cody's in Cody, Wyoming. The wildest LIVE animal I saw there was this sweet rabbit who was grazing on the lawn during lunch. I did see lots of stuffed animals and even saw one of Uncle Steve's distant relatives:
I know it is Steve's relative due to the striking resemblance! All kidding aside, we could have spent a lot more time in this exhibit. We saw some very interesting art, a HUGE gun collection, real stage coaches and clothing and personal items once belonging to Buffalo Bill and/or his friends.
That night, we continued our drive to Yellowstone National Park. On the way, we stopped at some beautiful waterfalls and saw some beautiful landscape. Once inside Yellowstone, the evidence of the devastating fires in 1988 are still prominent. It seemed that we almost saw more burnt trees than live ones.
Once we arrived at our hotel, Old Faithful Inn, the Old Faithful Geyser was minutes away from errupting. What a greeting!
This geyser errupts about every hour and a half. People would sit for an hour just to wait for it to errupt. I was lucky enough to see it three times while I was there and never once did I have to wait more than 5 minutes!
The night we arrived, we were on our own. So, besides for dinner, we just walked around and took in the scenery.
On Monday, we had a guided tour through Yellowstone. We learned about things such as Fountain Paint Pots, Thermal Hot Spots and Lodge Pole Pine Trees. Sounds fun, eh? Well, it was interesting enough, but that was it. Paint Pots are simply bubbling holes of white-ish mud, like this one:
That is actually steam coming off the mud. It is thick like paint, but I don't remember why they call them paint pots. You see, my ears were clogged from the high altitude, the steam stinks, and the tour guide was old as dirt and I couldn't hear him. Plus he told corny jokes. All I wanted to do was take my pictures and move on. And, I did! This is a Thermal Hot Spot. It is actually BOILING water. Now, this I found neat! And the water is a beautiful blue-green color. Our guide told a story of a dog once running into a hot spot, a man tried to rescue him, and they both died. Dogs are no longer allowed in the park areas that have these hot spots. This is what they look like:
If you look closely, under the steam you can see the spots of boiling water. This picture doesn't do the color justice, though. We stopped at a couple of waterfalls. I discovered that I am just not fond of heights. My legs were like jelly looking over the edges of these mountains! But what beauty!
Isn't that beautiful? A long way down, too!
We stopped for lunch at a spot called Mammoth Hot Springs. Our bus was too big to actually get to see the spring, however, we did get to walk down a neighborhood street. Apparently, some park employees get to rent housing inside the park during the summer months while they work. This is what we saw in the front yard of one worker:
This herd of mother Elks with their calves were just minding their own business. I came within 10 or so feet of the one that is alone and she never minded me. I am not sure what the ones on the front porch are doing, except for sitting in the shade. I thought it was funny. There must have been about 30 or more all together!
Along the merry way, we passed this herd of Bison (we call them Buffalo, but we were educated that there are no real buffalo in the US). Our bus had to stop for one who decided the grass was greener on the other side of the road!
We stopped at Lake Yellowstone Hotel and what a view! Joyce wanted her picture made here,
so I took it. In turn, she cut my head off!
If you are in Yellowstone as a family, and you book a tour with one of the hotels, you get to ride
in this:
Years ago, it looked like this:
So, on the road again.......
We stopped at the Continental Divide. There was this beautiful pond of lily pads, but not a frog in sight!
Eventually, we ended up back at the Old Faithful Inn where we ate a very casual supper, did some shopping and then went to bed. We got up Tuesday morning and headed to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. But not before stopping to take a 2 hour float down snake river!!!
While floating, we saw several moutain tops that still had snow on them! I can tell you, it was NOT cold! It was a nice balmy 97 degrees! We saw the baby eagle and two moose on this part of our trip. I got a picture of the eagle, but not the moose.
Late that afternoon, while in the town of Jackson Hole, we shopped briefly and went tothe Million Dollar Cowboy Bar. All of their bar stools are made of real horse saddles. We went in and took our picture because that is what the tour guide said we should do. He made a real deal out of it! Then for dinner, we went to Bar J Chuckwagon for "supper and a show". The food was mediocre at best and the show was outstanding! Worth every mile I spent on that bus!!!! We spent the night at the Virginian Lodge. The only place that could be worse is prison! Seriously!
Wednesday morning we were off again for another long bus ride to Salt Lake City, Utah. We spent ONE hour touring Temple Square. Most of that time was spent trying to convert us all to LDS (Mormon). The Tabernacle is beautiful. And we saw where the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sings. Their grounds are beautiful, too. However, I left without converting. As did the rest of our
group.
On Wednesday evening, we had our farewell dinner at The Hilton, where we were staying. The food was outstanding! We spent the evening talking with the new friends that we made. Some who we will never see again. I won't miss Bob. If you ever get the chance to ask me about him, please do!
The worst meal I had was at Yellowstone's Old Faithful Inn and the worst hotel room was in Jackson Hole at the Virginian Lodge. Trust me on those things! However, I had an AWESOME time! I would like for Scot and I to take the kids up there one day. Scot would live there if I would! Unless I suffer from Alzheimer's, this is one trip I will never forget!
Until next time.......

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