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.