Yellowstone Park - our first vacation in 3 years!

3:36 PM - Nov. 17, 2005 - Add to the Wildness

Here's a few notes from our trip at the start of September.  This was probably the richest vacation of my life, although it started out tiring and tense as we made the two day sprint from Canada to Wyoming.

Sept 6

9:30 a.m.:  For Dave, apparently the trip didn't even start till after Brandon.  For me, it started a week ago with everything that had to get done before we could even think about leaving.  I wanna go home!

4:30 p.m.:  We made it to Savage, at the border of Montana.  Sugar beets in field production are a novelty to us - we don't get that in our area.  We're all thrilled to be somewhere we've never been before.

5:20 p.m.  Dave promises to stop for supper at Miles City.  Does this happen? ...Well... not exactly.

One lane of the Interstate is closed for repaving, which prompts the following conversation:

Daddy (sees the former road off to the side): "There's the old highway."

Mommy: "It's full of tumbleweeds."

Anna:  "No wonder they're building a new one!"

Sept. 7

Peter spots some Red Angus grizzlies on a hillside.  Very exciting - for a few seconds.

Dave has a minor hissy fit when Beartooth Pass turns out to be closed due to landslides.  Dave's motto is "Get there."  Mine is, "Enjoy getting there, then enjoy being there, then enjoy the alternate route home."  This can have some humourous results - for those who enjoy watching that kind of sitcom...

We have lunch at Dead Indian Pass, and notice that the bag of chips is like a balloon from the difference in air pressure.  Cool science moment!

Sept. 8

We tour the Little Grand Canyon.  The pictures say it all:

We also see the Virginia Cascades, Beryl Spring, many of the geothermal areas, and Old Faithful.  Unfortunately, my film doesn't load correctly.  I want to cry.

To make up for it, God has a little surprise for us.  We meet the people camped across the road.  Quite funny - the two little boys are on either side of the road, knowing they're not supposed to cross without an adult, each making all kinds of gestures to persuade the other to break the rules.  Finally, they meet in the middle!  Well, nobody actually crossed the road!  Meanwhile, the seven-year-old says to me, "I don't know, Mom.  I don't like the look of them."

I tell her, "Well, I do.  They don't have brand-new, shiny stuff, they have four kids like us, and they look pretty much like our kind of people."

Were they ever!  We were up till way past dark, talking about anything and everything while the kids played and played and played.

Sept 9

We prayed with our new friends before we left - with a sense that we'd met kindred spirits who we'll want to stay in touch with.  And we have.  As we drove out through the mist, we saw a huge bull elk.  David took us back to Old Faithful, and we saw it in the morning sun - and this time the film worked perfectly!

Untitled Comment

I absolutely LOVE Yellowstone. The last time we went up that way, we marveled at motorcycles. I remember waking up at a campsite Eastern South Dakota and watching the line of motorcycles pass by as we quietly made pancakes. It was like something out of the Twilight Zone. Everywhere we went, parking lots were crowded with motorcycles. Finally, we discovered we traveling the same weekend as the big HD rally in Sturgis.

Thanks for visiting my blog...I appreciated your comment. And now that I'm back again, I vividly remember your story of the thrown cat : )

gottsegnet - 1:22 AM - Nov. 26, 2005

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Yellowstone

We met the Dyck family at Yellowstone. They were camped across the road from us. Our Kids played together and we talked about Families, homeschooling, and Church. What a good time that was! When are you coming to Cheyenne for a visit? Better yet, when are you moving here?

Don & Tonya

Anonymous - 8:35 PM - Dec. 14, 2005

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