Saturday, July 17, 2010

Tour of America - Day Seven

Ahhhhh…waking in a hotel room bed :)

Papa was up and showered, had made coffee and talked to the dealership, and was on his way out the door to have the truck checked out by the time I got up. I got the Cubs bathed, dressed, and we headed down for breakfast where Papa Bear met up with us. Turns out the truck was fine…just working hard to get up and over the mountains pulling Popper, combined with bad gas (whew!). After a brief family pow-wow to decide on our route to Oregon, and figure out some strategies for the Cubs to better occupy themselves during the longer stretches in the car, Papa ran out to do a little shopping while the Cubs and Mama packed up the rooms. Papa brought back snacks, juice boxes, a DS Light, and a portable DVD player. The additional electronics made for a much more pleasant drive.

Crossing the flat lands we started to see rivers near the highway. Those nice, flat, gently flowing rivers that you do fly fishing in. Ooooo, so inviting!

The drive up the mountain was, of course, spectacular. The trees, the cliffs, the rock formations, and….more rivers, this time faster flowing with small rapids. Absolutely beautiful!












Big Sky Country....

Then through the valley....



We pulled into the KOA Kampground around 6:00 pm, registered, dropped Popper in our spot, and took off for the geyser.


The Psychedelic bison at the KOA office.
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Just inside Yellowstone Park, we came across three elk-ish critters lounging by the river...

Has some spots of rain.

And more gorgeous rivers.



I've gotten pretty good at taking pictures out the window...

We passed through the geyser valley before reaching Old Faithful about an hour before she was expected to show off.


Anticipation.


Venting.


Rufus waiting for the show.
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And....just as the sun set....


...thar she blows!!!!



Just after the show...
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On the way out of the Park, we came across....

And, NO, I did NOT allow the children out of the car!

Pulled into camp about 10:00 pm…and set up camp. Cup Noodles for dinner, then BED!

Great, great day!

3 comments:

  1. Amazing pictures! Who needs to travel when they have your blog pics to look at! So cool. We were planning a trip to mt. rushmore this year, but ended up selling the house instead. So many staycation trips around here!

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  2. Love all that open country!! I'm going to risk sounding silly for asking, but are you likely to see a bear in Yellowstone?

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  3. Yes, Butterfly, you can see bears in Yellowstone, though we did not. They've taken great pains to try to keep the bears from entering human areas (mostly looking for easy food), and educating humans about bear-proofing everything. There was one infamous bear who learned to climb on top of VW bugs, jump on them, and pop the windows out so he could get to the food inside. Clever, but he had to be destroyed because of all the damage he was doing. "Don't feed the bears!" :)

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