We took a little out of the way jog to YELLOWSTONE national park. It was the first national park, established in 1872. Yellowstone is mostly in Wyoming, but dips into a few other states as well.
There are a few entrances into the park, we entered in the west entrance, made a dip down to the south part, and left through the northeast entrance. It was $25 to just drive through, but the pass is good for a week.
We got to see Old Faithful. It was the first geyser in the park to receive a name. It can shoot up to 8,400 gallons of boiling water out of it (thank you wikipedia!). Apparently, people used to do their laundry on it. That whole part of the park had multiple geysers, with super hot water (i wasn't convinced it was boiling, i thought it was just the way the water was coming up. I jumped off the path to touch the water to prove it wasnt boiling. i was wrong.)
We stopped at another part in the park with more steaming water. The water is ridden with sulfur and therefore stinks like rotten eggs.
A very common site in Yellowstone is Bison (little tidbit: While they can be called buffalo in north america, they aren't called bison anywhere other than north america.) These bison were putting on a show, and slowing traffic to a stop.
Yellowstone's campgrounds were full, and to camp in the wilderness, you have to get a back country pass. We didn't find anywhere to get those passes, so we drove out of yellowstone (much to my dismay- in the DARK. with animals EVERYWHERE.) BUT we came across a little town a few miles outside of yellowstone(luckily, because the highway closed right after it for the night). I saw one place said they rented out cabins, so i went in to talk to the people. The nice guy at the desk (Bob) informed me the cabins were full, but he had a brothel next door. I kid you not. It USED to be a brothel, but he'd rent out a room to us for the low low price of $40.
The brothel was AWESOME. the bedroom doors all had the whore's names on them (our room belonged to Mae), and downstairs was a tavern. I woke up a few times thinking whores were haunting the place, but overall it was a cool experience. If you're ever by the northeast entrance of yellowstone and need a place to stay, it was called pine ridge cabins in Silver Gate, Montana.
Then we drove from yellowstone through montana and into north dakota.
Last night was our very last night camping on the trip. No more setting up a tent, no more nasty showers, no more peeing in the grass, no more air mattress that loses its air halfway through the night, no more having to worry about getting up before campground attendants realize we haven't paid, no more having to pay for setting up a tent, no more searching aimlessly for internet. It's a little sad, really. No more hot dogs on the fire, corn on the fire (which, turns out, is the best way to eat canned corn), burning our hands on the chili on the fire, meeting campsite neighbors, etc.
Tonight, we are in Minnesota, staying with some friends. Tomorrow, we will make it to Iowa and hopefully back to Maryville.
A few weeks ago, a friend & I drove to Springfield, MO to see another pair of friends. Outside of springfield is a place called animal paradise. It's $15 per person, and more than worth it. You drive through, with animal food, and the animals come right up to you! They'd even try to join us in our car...
A camel & Us
My all time favorite animal: A Zebra!!! and her adorable offspring.
A mix of a zebra & a donkey (called a zedonk)
Easily the meanest animal there, it even bit me!
Love it.
Giant mushrooms:
We got to see Old Faithful. It was the first geyser in the park to receive a name. It can shoot up to 8,400 gallons of boiling water out of it (thank you wikipedia!). Apparently, people used to do their laundry on it. That whole part of the park had multiple geysers, with super hot water (i wasn't convinced it was boiling, i thought it was just the way the water was coming up. I jumped off the path to touch the water to prove it wasnt boiling. i was wrong.)
We stopped at another part in the park with more steaming water. The water is ridden with sulfur and therefore stinks like rotten eggs.
Tonight, we are in Minnesota, staying with some friends. Tomorrow, we will make it to Iowa and hopefully back to Maryville.
This is one of my cousins. She's years younger than me, but already taller!
We had sushi at sushi.com in Spokane. Not only was it relatively cheap, but DELICIOUS!
We set up camp at a KOA, where their slogan is "it's not camping, it's kamping". By this, as far as i can tell, they mean it is a hotel outside. There were the basics (showers, bathroom, place to set up tent), but also a pool, two hot tubs, an arcade, bike rentals, breakfast served, ice cream social, internet, a store, and soo many other things. It was a bit ridiculous, but a nice change after roughing it for awhile.
Riverfront Park in Spokane, WA
The Spokane falls
This is on the carousel at the Riverfront Park. The carousel is over 100 years old & has all handcarved horses- one of the last made from hand.
My cousins- Eric, Kaitlyn & Micaela!
Me & my Uncle Paul. He & his family graciously let us in their house for the evening, including dinner and breakfast :)
Today, we went through customs. Yep, that was the highlight of the day. The dude at the window didnt like our answers to questions such as "Where do you work" (answer: 2/3 of us are unemployed, the third works at a pharmacy, not the best answer either), "is is missour-eee or missour--uhh" (missour-eee, sir), "where did you stop in canada?" (where we could to camp), "what did you bring from canada to sell?" (nothing), etc. We had to go into the customs office, where they wouldnt let me readily pee, while they started to search the car. I really think the dude at the window was mad at the dude that had to search cars, bc the poor guy that had to search the car spent like 15 min on the passenger seat...after he figured out how to open it. Apparently, there's a big music festival that they assumed we were at (young people means music festival means definitely smuggling drugs into the states). After we played dumb when they asked if we were at this music festival (which had an african-sounding name to it, we were like, no, sir, we did NOT drive to africa..?), they let us go.
Yesterday, we decided we needed a day of luxury. What better way to find good, cheap comfort than natural hot springs!
This is a view of the "hot pool". the water all comes from the hot springs there in radium. Unfortunately, it seemed more of a resort town than anything. Since it was a friday, campsites were all full up, so we (3 of us!) slept in the car, in a church parking lot, right next to a pub.
We woke up super early to find SHEEP going around town!
This lil dude was chewing on that tree- craziness!
