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.

Our last day in Spokane was spent hanging out with my family, eating sushi with some friends, and driving out.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.

We found a starbucks and took full advantage of their internet (side note: to use internet at most starbucks now, you have to have a gift card- bull). Since we slept in the car last night, we all could use a nap, so we've stopped at a campground and have napped. Tomorrow: Spokane to see Judd's friend and my family.

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!

Look at that rainbow! :)
We went to Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada. It cost $20 to even drive through the park, but we had no choice (that was our chosen route thanks to Tom Tom). Luckily, though, we came across Athabasca Falls- a goooorgeous, huge waterfall!


We camped at a campground in Jasper Park- it cost an extra $9 for firewood! Buuut... what they won't know won't hurt them. They never came by to see if we paid :)

We camped in Dawson Creek. Camping was scarce bc of a rodeo, but no worries- we found a perfect spot!

...BUT the best part? someone said to us "you see the lights?" WE GOT TO SEE THE NORTHERN LIGHTS! in SUMMER! SOOO pretty!

PROOF that my car started freaking out before 36,000 miles (that's when the warranty is up). We looked in the manual, and it says its the suspension control thats going out. We eventually stopped at a gas station to turn the car off and see if that light would come back on. When we turned the car off, the windshield wipers came on uncontrollably (i wish i were kidding you) BUT those lights went off :)
WILD BUFFALO were taking over the highway! O, Canada!
We set up camp in Muncho Lake, BC- GOOORGEOUS!

The next night, we camped outside of Whitehorse, YT at a territorial campground. There has been a burn ban in most of Canada, so we've been living on foods that don't require heat (lots of tuna!)
Even though we froze without a fire, the campground was absolutely gorgeous, as is most of Canada this time of year.

August 2nd-our last day in Alaska :( There's me, with the alaska sign, my lovely car, and my new alaska hat! if you look really close, you can see all the scratches on my legs from our 12 hour hike(s)
This is why you don't build on permafrost. We spent the night in Dawson City, Yukon Territory. It was a neat little town with really old buildings. Every now and then i'd think i slipped back in time... The best part? I got compliments on my car from a porsche owner, an Austrailian, and some other random people.

Today, we hung out in Fairbanks. We went to the university of alaska at fairbanks to check out the museum, which unfortunately was $10, so we passed. We went to Pioneer Park instead. For free, we saw an old-type town with a train and everything. There were a bunch of log cabins that were built in the early 1900s that had been moved to the park.
They also had a whooole bunch of miniature replicas of the towns around Fairbanks.



There was also a presbyterian church built in 1902 there. This was their cute lock on it.



I hung out with a wooden nordic princess.


Tonight, we're staying outside of Tok in a tiny campground with a tiny bar. Another camper just came in and told us theres a grizzly bear outside :) Hopefully we won't become bear food tonight. Tomorrow: Canada!

Today has been spent complaining about our hiking 24 hours in a 36 hour period :) we're all sore, bruised, blistered, and a bit bloody. We drove to fairbanks and have decided to take it easy. However, the sun was pretty, so i shall put a pic up of it. It's a bit smokey, as there have been forest fires in our area. Tomorrow we will check out a museum on campus as well as a music/arts festival. Then, we start our journey home