Heather's driving the RV

Why? Can you guess?

Kevin is not feeling well. 

We are currently in Buffalo, WY trying to get to the Black Hills area (3:20 hrs away). It's 5:28pm MT.

We safely arrived at Lead, SD at Heather's cousin, Michelle's cabin.

Day 11: Good bye Yellowstone, Hello Rodeo

We travelled through Yellowstone today with two goals: see Old Faithful geyser and exit the park quickly.

Ryan was a trooper today and he slept or rested the entire time without complaining. It took about 4- 4:30 hrs to get from West Yellowstone to Cody, WY.

He was not able to get up to walk to Old Faithful, so Riley and Heather went. It was raining hard when we left the camper. We saw many people gathering around Old Faithful, so we put an extra pep in our step . We got there at 2:02 and it was predicted to erupt between 2:19 and 2:32. Quick pit stop, time to listen to a park ranger talk about geysers, watch it erupt, check out the inside of the Old Faithful Inn and back in the RV. It even hailed on us!

We talked about the different landscapes, fire and re-growth. Lake Yellowstone was beautiful as we drove through West Thumb and Lake Village.  We saw practically zero wildlife today from the road: 2 bison, 1 deer.

We arrived at Ponderosa Campground in Cody, WY. We showered, did laundry, ate a quick dinner, and got ready for the Rodeo. Ryan wanted to go so bad! Heather bought 4 tickets. After Ryan walked around in the camper, he and Dad decided to stay back. Heather asked the Camp store (where she bought the rodeo tickets) if they would buy back two tickets and they did!

We took the Rodeo bus to get there. $4 a person. They pick up at a few stops (ours was the last one) and drive you back after the rodeo. The driver asked Riley how old he was and then asked him to stay with him at the front of the bus. He told Riley about the "junior calf scramble" for 12 year olds and younger. The driver asked Riley to represent our bus and everyone practiced cheering for him.

All the kids had a "warm-up" before their big event. Riley had to touch his toes, do a push-up, make a dirt angel and rollover. He said it was easy to run out there. He was about 10ft away from grabbing the ribbon off the calves tails. He had fun!  We took lots of video of each event to share with Ryan and Kevin.

It started raining and became very windy. It was a covered stadium, but it felt like I was raining sideways for awhile.

When we got back on the bus, the driver asked where Riley was and he presented him with a t-shirt! He was very kind.

Day 11: we are on the move!

Kevin walked 4 blocks to the grocery store and bought a few items:

Heather sprayed down practically all surfaces and sanitized the dishes with 5 pots of boiling water.

Ryan rested. Riley drew and practiced tying knots outside. Tires rolled out at 12:43pm. Next stop Old Faithful Inn and Geyser. Then into Cody, WY.

Day 11: oh the Norovirus!

It started at 2am with...Ryan.  We are all tired. We are caught in the cycle...help, clean, rest, help, clean, rest.

We are still in West Yellowstone.  Check out is at 11am - an hour and half.

Our Costco size container of disinfectant wipes is almost empty.  We are wishing we could spray down everything with bleach! Like an inside car wash.

I'll post more later once we reach tonight's destination.

Day 10: Climbing and Hot

We had a leisurely morning at Rocky Mountain RV park. We did laundry, ate breakfasted, packed up, and played mini-golf.  Tires were rolling at 10:30am. Gardiner, MT looks like a really nice town.  We entered Yellowstone National Park through the North Entrance and headed to Mammoth.

Today was hot! Almost 90 quite a different from the mid 60s in Glacier. We parked the RV and looked on the grassy boulevard to find a female elk eating grass.

We walked over to the visitor center to gather some information about routes and hikes.   Then decided to walk to the Mammoth Springs and saw another elk just walking through town.

We walked a short while to get to see these hot springs, but the boys kept saying "it's so hot!"  We stopped by every tree or bush that provided shade and rested.  There are not many trees in this part of Yellowstone.

We continued our drive east towards the northern part of Yellowstone through Tower towards Canyon Village. Kevin just felt like he was climbing and climbing in the RV over the mountains.  We were as high as 9 or 10,000 ft. Both Kevin and Heather commented how the scenery and views of Yellowstone are kinda a let down after going to Glacier.  Of course it's still beautiful in it's own way.

From Canyon Village, we drove south to the South Rim Road and walked on Uncle Tom's trail down into the Canyon to see the amazing waterfall.  This walk is not for the faint-hearted as it is 328 steps down.  The steps are metal and see-through!  Going down is easier than up as you just keep climbing and climbing and climbing!

We walked to Artists Point to see the full view of the waterfall and entire canyon.  Then hopped back into the RV to drive west through Norris and then to our final destination West Yellowstone, MT.  We stayed at Hideaway RV park, a small, quiet campground that holds 15 campers.  We chatted with RV Park Hosts as it's their 4th day on the job.  The husband has been asking the wife for 10 years to retire and do this. Heather called Ponderosa Campground in Cody, WY.  They had a cancellation, so we got a site.  Our plan for Saturday is to drive from West Yellowstone to Old Faithful then east towards Cody to see Buffalo Bill Museum and the Cody Rodeo.

Day 9: Blowing Something

"We want to get up early to leave camp and be on the road by 8am." That's what Kevin thought before he went to sleep last night. Our night turned into something else...  The camp had 40+ individuals get hit with a 24 hr bug (Norwalk virus) over the past few days. We thought Riley was feeling car sick from the switchbacks last evening, but it turned into "something else". He was awake hourly until 6am-ish.

Today was supposed to be a 9 hr travel day to Cody, WY. Not sure how Riley would feel once we started moving, we decided to let him sleep in a bit. Tires were rolling at 9:30am. 

We returned the rental car to the Glacier International Airport in Kalispell, MT at 10am. Then drove south to Missoula, east through Butte, Bozeman, and Livingston.  As we were driving down south 89 towards the North Entrance of Yellowstone, Kevin decided to pull over to check everything. The road was extremely bumpy. Everything was fine. Here's the view of the river and hill side:

On the road again. We were about 45 minutes from our campsite and Riley was looking forward to not moving!

We really started shaking and all of sudden "bang" - We blew something!! Blown tire #2 of this road trip. This time back left side outer tire. 

The scene: a quieter two lane highway with extra wide space between lanes, so cars could pass.  Even though Kevin was lying in the traffic side, he was covered by the shade. 

After Kevin had all his "equipment" in place, Heather quickly jumped on the iPhone and located 7 tire stores. She called the first place at 5:58pm. They had an RV tire that matched our size in stock. She said she wanted it! Their store closed in 2 minutes. Then asked if she could pay for it now on the phone and by chance if someone was driving home on south89 they could drop it off. (Completely forgetting they need the old tire rim to mount the new tire onto!) The crazy request did lead to a conversation with the manager, Tory, who agreed to wait and stay open for us. We said we'd be there in 40 minutes. They were very kind to stay open. After Kevin was done changing the tire, we loaded all the equipment, turned around and headed 17 miles back North into Livingston, MT. By taking care of this tonight, it saved us 2 hrs of driving on Friday morning.  Things went quickly at the Tire-Rama and we thanked Tory and Joe for staying late by slipping a $20 bill to go have a beer and thanked them for their kindness. We were on our way again.  We filled up with gas, bought a few groceries at the store and picked up a few sandwhiches at Arby's.

We arrived at Rocky Mountain RV park at 8:40pm. This is a beautiful campground. We all went for showers and were impressed with the hotel-like bathroom / shower house. There was tile and granite in the showers! Well worth the $61.50.

During the drive today, Heather explored options for re-routing the next three travel days. Plans includes canceling some reservations, but still paying full price! Making new reservations at West Yellowstone and not sure where we are camping in two nights. We wanted to go to Cody, WY to see their rodeo, but all sites are taken at multiple places. We'll see what the next few days bring!

Day 8: East Glacier Park

We drove hwy 2 east along the bottom of the park and then took hwy 49 north. It took a good 2 hours to get around and up to the East side. 

We noticed the different landscape on this side of the park. Less trees, more open spaces. We could see evidence of previous forest fires.

We stopped for lunch and to help relieve the "woozies" from curvy roads.

We arrived at St. Mary's Visitor Center. Talked to Rangers Austin and Sarah for recommendations on what to do in one afternoon in East Glacier... They both said go to Many Glacier!

On the drive into Many Glacier we saw two Grizzly Bears on the right side of the road.

We parked at Many Glacier Hotel parking and prepared for our 1.2 mile hike to Lake Josephine. 

It was lightly raining and super windy.  At times the sun would come out and the rain would stop.

It was super windy!!

 

We ate dinner at the Many Glacier Hotel pub/lounge. Riley said "this is the best balsamic vinaigrette dress ever". We found out it was homemade. Our waitress from Wisconsin said she was impressed with how our boys behaved in the restaurant and how Riley ate the dressing and salad. It was nice to hear this compliment as minutes earlier they were on the hiking trail grabbing and poking and hitting each other. :)

 This was our best meal on vacation so far!

We headed back to St. Mary's park entrance, so Kevin could drive the 'Going to the Sun Road' back to the West side.

Good bye East Side! 

Back up to Logan's Pass and snow!

And all the way back down on the West side...

I have so many great photos on my 'real' camera. These blog pics were all taken with my iPhone.

Here's the last shot I took before climbing in the RV to unpack and get ready for bed:

Tomorrow morning we are on the road headed towards Cody, WY - the Rodeo Capitol of the World!