It's Nice to Visit, But It's Time to Go

Kelly here. As I write this post, we have returned home, but I will post as if we are still on the road. I hope you are still enjoying reading about our travels.

Monday, July 6

It was time to say goodbye. We had a long journey ahead of us for the day. The Empson family reluctantly waved us on and we were on our way about 9:30 a.m. We first had to get some gasoline and a Shell station had a very nice price not far down the road.

Again as we traveled down the road, we saw lots of beautiful scenery. It wasn't long that we noticed something in the mirror flapping in the wind. It was our awning. The awning has two layers and apparently, the hail storm that we had two nights before was too much for it. The part that was visible on the roll was ripping fast and tearing away. We lost most of it before we were able to do anything about it. The main part of the awning is still intact but the top layer is gone. I'm sure it will have to be replaced. We discovered later that one of the vents on the roof of the camper was also damaged and will have to be replaced. Oh, well.

It was starting to get close to lunch and we decided we needed to stop to dump the tanks somewhere and then eat a picnic lunch. We were able to stop at a Flying J (one of my new favorite places) and dump the tanks. We also needed to fill the fresh water tank for later. I guess we were kind of in a hurry because the place was very busy and people were waiting on us. Well in our haste, we forgot to put the cap back on the fresh water tank and left it at the Flying J. Oops.

Now it was time for lunch. We were having a little trouble finding a place to pull over and stop. We were in the Salt Lake City area and it was very busy. We ended up exiting the freeway and finally found a public park to have lunch. It really took us longer than necessary and put us behind schedule.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. We headed back into Colorado and since we were behind time, we ended up stopping at an Arby's and eating supper. We finally pulled into the Monument RV Park in Fruitia, CO, at about 8:30 that evening. The office was closed and fortunately, they had a system where we could register ourselves. We were pretty tired, so we just set up camp and fell in bed.

A Day Off in Chubbuck

Sunday, July 5

Catherine here. Well, I know today was Sunday, but we relaxed with family today. My sister-in-law has a "pet" squirrel named Stubby. Just about each day this wild little squirrel visits her and her husband. The poor little animal was named Stubby because he has a stubby hand, probably from a fight with another animal. He is so cute! Well, today we got to see him and feed him a few peanuts. He came to about 3 feet away from Kelly. I got worried, but Stubby never got too close or tried to get peanuts out of our hands. Another little squirrel showed up as well, and we threw peanuts for him, too.

My sis-in-law and her husband took us to eat lunch at a really good restaurant in Pocatello called Butter Burrs. They had all different types of food, and we were really hungry (even after eating lots of yummy things at breakfast). Butter Burrs serves homestyle things like chicken fried steak as well as great soups and sandwiches. Their coconut pie, though, is the best.

After lunch we visited the local Costco. Sam's is the norm in our neck of the woods. We picked up some needed things and then took off to sight see in Pocatello and search for some souveniers of our trip. We saw our niece who was at work and surprised her. While shopping at a local store we saw a goofy-looking tool just waiting to have its picture taken. We understand that they use these alot in Idaho, but we have never had the need to even pick one up. I had to take a picture of it. We got to see some cool sights of Pocatello-new and old. There was an old Grayhound bus depot that we saw the outside of, but unfortunately it was Sunday, and they were closed. Pocatello is a great city full of lots of history - mostly train related, and I am really glad we got to see it.

After touring the town we went back to the house. My sister-in-law has started hanging bird houses on her backyard fence. My niece had a wonderful idea for us to paint some little bird houses and add to the collection. My husband spent way too much time painting his, and it turned out beautifully (complete with a Texas flag on the roof). After the painting was done it was time for dinner, and we were fed chicken and real Idaho mashed potatoes (Yummy!). We tried to eat some ice cream outside and feed Stubby some more, but it started raining again. Oh, well. It was a much-needed relaxing day.

Back to Civilization

On July 4th, we got up and promptly packed up to head out of the park. But we were not completely finished with some things to do. The first thing we needed to do was have a picture taken of the four of us in front of something yellowstoney. Since the Yellowstone Falls was on our way out, we decided to pick that and it was pretty much my favorite. We found someone nice to take our picture and they did a wonderful job. Next we went to the gift shop at Canyon Village to pick up some gifts for some and to look for a little something we could get for ourselves to remember the trip by. Once that was done, it was time to head out. We exited the park by way of West Yellowstone. This was a very touristy town with lots to see and buy. We did find a clothing shop and picked up a few sweat shirts for the girls at a mere $4 per shirt. I made the girls day by treating them to lunch at McDonald's. Ronald was very proud of his menu items with a Big Mac combo meal running a little over $7. Ouch!

Since West was in Montana, we had to take a picture at the state sign. We weren't in Montana long and then entered Idaho on our way to my sister's house in Chubbuck which is a suburb of Pocatello. It was about a 3 hour drive from West so it wasn't going to be too long of a day. The entire drive was flat with really nice mountain views all around. We even were able to see a little of the Grand Tetons. We did see lots of potato fields. They had not bloomed yet so it was not time for harvest.

Then it happened. We approached the town of Rigby, Idaho and I noticed a sign that said that it was the birthplace of television. Wohoo! It even had a museum with TV memorabilia. Naturally I had to stop. Oh, did I mention it was July 4th and a Saturday? You can imagine my sadness when we found out it was closed. I must return sometime to visit this wonderful thing.

We continued on and finally reached my sister's house. She was outside watering plants and waiting for our arrival. Everyone was happy to see us. We took the tour of their house and became familiar with our guest house which was their travel trailer that they had fixed up very nice to resemble a hotel complete with chocolate on the pillows. We later came to call it the Empson Embassy.

We had intended to eat hamburgers outside and had just started eating when a pretty fierce gust of wind came up accompanied by some rather nasty clouds. It wasn't long until the clouds started dumping a lot of rain and pea sized hail. It kept coming and coming and soon covered the ground to a winter white. It appeared to not hurt anything, but it wouldn't be until later that we found out that we did in fact receive some damage on our camper, but more about that later. The hamburgers were good even though we finished them inside the house. The rest of the night we visited and had a wonderful time.

Finally, A Post

This will be a rather long post because I've decided to combine all the days at Yellowstone into one post. You are welcome to read it all if you would like. It will be a little long.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

We finished our first night as official "Boondockers". That means we camped with no hookups. Tent campers do it all the time, but when you have a fully outfitted camper, it can be a challenge to use the nice things a camper has to offer without running out of power or fuel. We packed up the camper ready to go to Yellowstone but didn't hook up to the truck. We went in to Cody to look at a particular sight I had my eye on as well as make an important stop at Walmart to prepare for our Yellowsone stay. We visited an old west town in Cody. The town consisted mainly of actual log buildings in use around 1900 in various locations in the region. The town was complete including a saloon, blacksmith shop and general store to name just a few. The saloon had actual bullet holes in the door. The exhibit even included a cabin that Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid hid out in. It was great for Amy and Erin to learn a little about how people lived not really all that long ago.

After the town visit and a stop at Walmart, we made a quick stop at the Buffalo Bill Reservoir Dam. It was a pretty impressive sight and we were able to walk on top of the dam via a viewing platform and look straight down to the bottom. It was pretty high and made me a little uneasy. The visitor center included information about the Dam and it's construction and some of the interesting facts about the surrounding area. The visit didn't take too long and we were back at the state park hooking up the camper ready to go into Yellowstone.

The entrance to Yellowstone was about 50 miles from Cody so the drive was not too bad. It wasn't long before we entered the Shoshone National Forest and the scenery was absolutely stunning. We were very impressed at the many homes that were located up steep hills and wondered if maybe any movie stars might be the owners. We also passed many camping areas where we could have easily stayed I guess for free the night before instead of paying $25 to stay at the state park in Cody.

We finally arrived at the Yellowstone National Park east entrance. We payed our fee and began the trek to our campground. We were not really prepared for some of the amazing wonders that we would see along the way. We started the 2500 ft. climb into the interior of the park seeing many water falls that were amazing, bright green mountain bluffs that looked like greens on a golf course and banks of snow that could have been hundreds of years old. The one thing we did not see was any sign of animals that we had heard about. We drove through acres of burned trees that were part of that huge forest fire in 1988 that covered a large part of the park. The drive was about 20 miles but seemed like 2.

We finally arrived at our campground around 3:00 p.m., checked in and headed to our site. The campground was Bridge Bay campground and is set up with about 10 different loops. They are able to host 450 campers at once. And the campground was full. This is a busy park. The first four loops didn't have many trees and were very open except at the top of the loops. That's where our sight was. It was at the top of B loop and was really nice with lots of trees. It was a double sight but really wasn't all that big. It was tough parking the camper and the truck next to each other and having enough room. We were also higher than the other sights so we were able to look down on the campground and had a nice view of the mountains in the distance as well as Yellowstone Lake.

After we set up camp there wasn't much time to check out some of the park's natural features, so we went to Fishing Bridge Camp (not far from us) and went to the visitor center. That's where we looked at a few exhibits and asked some questions about some short hikes we could take during our stay. Amy and Erin also signed up for the Junior Ranger program. The program is really neat. It teaches kids about Yellowstone by requiring them to answer questions and complete activities in a provided workbook. The last time we came to Yellowstone, five years ago, the girls completed the program and received a patch. This time, since they are older, they have to complete more pages and then they will receive a patch designed for older kids.

Wednesday, July 1

This is our first complete day at the park and it looks like it's going to be full. The big goal is to see Yellowstone Canyon and Yellowstone Falls, basically the reason for the name of the park. It was about a 20 mile drive, but in the park, you usually drive about 45 miles per hour, all the while turning your head one way and the other looking for various wildlife. Along the way are several geothermal features that are must sees. I won't go into details about all the features we saw. I will say that they were all pretty cool to see. Most were pretty stinky with the smell of sulphur. It was really amazing to actually witness an active volcano and the way it still is changing the landscape.

On the way to the canyon, we encountered our first wildlife sighting. It would be the first of many of this particular 4 footed creature.....the buffalo or bison. They were certainly there all big and burley and really didn't care wheather we were there or not. They were neat to see at first but then quickly became like seeing squirrels back home, very numerous and no big deal.

The canyon was absolutely awesome. There are actually two falls that are not far apart. The lower falls and the upper falls. Original names for sure. The lower falls is the bigger of the two. We were able to take a short hike to the brink of the lower falls and man was it powerful. The hike back was very steep and tiring. We went to various locations veiwing the two falls and really enjoyed it all. This was probably my most favorite area of the park.

After we made our trek around it was time to head back to camp for some supper. We got back in time to attend a ranger presentation at our amphetheater located not far from our campsite. The ranger was dressed in explorer garb and he explained about the first explorers into the park. It was really interesting and he finished most of his talk just before it started raining. It rained every day in the park, usually in the late afternoon.

Thursday, July 2

Today was our day to go to Old Faithful. We decided to try to get there a little early thinking that the crowds were not going to be too bad. Sure enough, we entered the parking lot and got a decent space and walked to the visitor center. At the visitor center, they post the approximate times of eruption for the various geysers in the vacinity including Old Faithful. We saw that the next eruption was to be within the next 45 minutes, so we decided to go and get us a seat. They can usually predict within 10 minutes of the actual time, so it is pretty faithful. We sat down and waited and it wasn't long before it happened. It was pretty cool, but I was more interested in the human element that had gathered around the geyser. It was about 10:30 a.m. and there were many people who had gathered to watch. After the eruption, we walked on the boardwalk that took us to Old Faithful Inn and then around to several more geysers in the area. The boardwalk made a big loop and put us back at Old Faithful on the back side. By the time we got there, it was time for the geyser to erupt again. By this time a lot more people had gathered and it was quite impressive. After the eruption, we came around the front and there was people everywhere. It was time for us to find a location for a picnic lunch so we left. By this time, the parking lot was full and as we were headed for the truck, I made the comment that it was like leaving Disney World because there were people everywhere all heading for the same general location. It was too much for me and I was ready to go. The rest of the day, we saw more geothermal features and then went back to the campground and had hamburgers for supper. Today we saw some elk. A little side note here: not that I'm really counting, but there have been two times in my entire life that I have seen a little boy drop his pants completely and relieve himself in public. Both times have been at Old Fathful Geyser. I guess it just has that effect on some people.

Friday, July 3

Today was going to be a big day. We explored the northern part of the Grand Loop. The Grand Loop is basically a big circle of road inside the park. One road crosses in the middle so it is more like a figure 8. There is not a whole lot of geothermal features in the northern part. There is, however, lots of pretty scenery to look at. We marveled at more amazing mountain, canyons and rivers all along the way. We ate lunch at Mammoth Hot Springs. This is where the main headquarters for the park is located. It is located very close to the north entrance to the park which is in Montana. We felt the need to be able to say we went to Montana on our trip, so we headed toward that direction. On the way, we discovered some big horned sheep on a cliff. That was pretty cool and we were able to get a blurry picture of them. We crossed into Montana and took a picture at the old arched entrance to Yellowstone National Park. We then headed back in and continued on our way around the Grand Loop. We stopped at the Norris Geyser Basin and look at some pretty neat geysers. The boardwalk there is about 2 miles long winding around to various features. We noticed there were some particularly nasty rain clouds heading our way so we couldn't really enjoy the sights too much for having to cut our tour short. On the way back to camp, we stopped in at the visitor center at Fishing Bridge, so the girls could turn in there workbooks and receive their patches. We barely got there in time before the center closed and the ranger was very nice. We then headed back to camp to try to pack a few things up and get ready to depart the next morning for Idaho and the next chapter of our trip.

Aren't We There Yet!?

Well, this wasn't the longest drive of the vacation, but it was close. We ended up leaving Loveland at 8:15 a.m. which was pretty close to on schedule. We had a small mishap just south of the Wyoming border. One of the caps on our camper bumper decided to make a break for it and fell off. That would be fine except that the bumper houses our two sewer hoses. We were driving along just enjoying the landscape when a car pulled up beside us waving and pointing in the direction of the camper. Fortunately I realized that something was wrong and they weren't just admiring our beautiful Palomino Stampede. Sure enough, one sewer hose was hanging out and banging on the concrete while going down the road. Needless to say it was beat up pretty bad and fortunately we have a back up.

We stopped at a really nice rest area about 100 miles into Wyoming and ate lunch. This time we just ate in the camper. The weather was really pleasant and the sandwich lunch was good. We then hit the road and even now it's hard to believe, but we drove 4 more hours without stopping once. The girls were amazing! We drove into Shoshone pretty much on fumes and refueled. We then headed due north for Cody. We immediately came into some of the most beautiful scenery on our trip yet. The highway took us through the Wind River Canyon. This was a winding river with the highway on one side and a railroad track on the other. It reminded me a little of the Million Dollar Highway north of Durango, but this trek was more rustic. Not much trees and rocks of every different color. It was really amazing. We arrived at the Buffalo Bill State Park in Cody at about 7:00 p.m. This will be interesting because the campground has no hookups so we are trying our hand at boondocking. That is where you basically live off the battery power of the trailer to live. It shouldn't be too hard.

Tomorrow we head into Yellowstone National Park. I'm not sure when or if I will be able to update so it may be several days. Hopefully you will hear from us before July 4.




Entering the wonderful (and sometimes flat) state of Wyoming









Did I mention that Wyoming is sometimes flat? We saw this kind of stuff quite often today.







Still somewhat sane after 4 hours in the truck.









The duo looks natural in this setting, huh? This is inside the Wind River Canyon.








This was a railroad tunnel in the canyon. They were all really cool because they looked like old mining entrances.









This was one of our tunnels in the canyon. Don't mind the bugs that have collected on the windshield.








Early on in my plans for the vacation, I was contemplating visiting Devils Tower (Close Encounters Movie Location). We decided not to visit this trip, but then this little flattop came along. It's close, don't you think?






11 Hours in a vehicle and then you come across this. Kind of makes it all worth it.







One last tunnel before our stop for the day. This one was about 1/3 of a mile long with lights and everything. It was fun for the girls. This was located just west of Cody, WY.

They finally tied the knot!

Well, Emily and Jamison are married. Our day was all about the wedding. First, we went to the park where the wedding was held and put bows on chairs, got table decorations ready, and did whatever the mother of the groom wanted us to do. Even though it was going to be outside, it looked very elegant. The weather was perfect. I know some people from Colorado probably thought it was hot, but we sure didn't. One of our responsibilities was playing our instruments at the beginning of the ceremony and it didn't sound too bad. (We were so thankful for that!) The ceremony was sweet, and lots of girls (including the bride and bridesmaids) had to dab their eyes several times. After they kissed as husband and wife we ate some food to tie us over until the cakes were cut. Our daughters got to make a new friend and share their sidewalk chalk with the kids at the wedding. They had lots of fun and weren't bored at all. The bridemaids and groomsmen said their toasts, Emily and Jamison cut the cakes, and we ate some more. Jeanne made some beautiful and scrumptious cakes. We had to sample all of them. Then the dancing began. I'm glad Emily was wearing crocks considering all of the dancing she was doing. It was especially sweet seeing her dance with her dad. We had a wonderful time and wouldn't have missed it for anything. Now that that part of our trip is over we are headed toward the Northwest and Cody, Wyoming. It's going to be a long drive there, so we're getting an early start. Joy.

Now It's Mainly Just Getting Ready for the Wedding

That was about all that went on today. We took a little break from "vacationing" and did some necessary things to get ready to marry off Emily. This morning, I took Catherine, Amy and Erin to get their nails done. Needless to say the very smell of one of those places keeps me miles away, so to pass the time, I found some good garage sales in the area. It was a little different then the ones at home. Most had the same kind of stuff you would see in Texas, but I can safely say that I have never seen a snow shovel at a garage sale back home. Today I saw two. Were they good prices? I have no idea.

After I picked up the girls, we stopped at what I guess is a regional restaurant called the Spicy Pickle. It's basically a sandwich shop much like panera bread and there are a few locations in Texas. It was a pretty good lunch.

After a little rest at the camper, it was on to the wedding rehearsal and dinner. I really liked this kind of rehearsal because the dinner was actually first and it was pizza! And this pizza was really good. They had about 15 pizzas and I think each one was a different flavor. They were from a local pizzeria owned by a friend of the groom. It was really good. We then rehearsed for a while and that was the end of the day.

The wedding tomorrow will be really nice and the weather looks to be pretty awesome.