Tuesday Morning Post 1

Sorry I didn't get to post much yesterday.  After you hear about our day, you will understand.  As you know, we stayed the night in Bozeman, MT.  The hotel was wonderful.  We got up monday morning and met for breakfast at 7 am.  We left the hotel at about 7:30 (continental breakfasts don't take long).  We were off to Yellowstone National Park.  We drove to Livingston, MT and then headed down S-89 to the North entrance to the park.  This was about an 1 1/2 hour trip.  It was impossible to find lodging closer, believe me, I looked.  The drive to the park was beautiful.  There were lots of mountain views, rivers, wildlife and more.  In fact we saw elk, big horn sheep and antelope way before we entered the park.  Our first stop in the park was Mammoth Springs.  They were bubbling and spewing hot pools.  We walked the boardwalk and saw several.  After that we visited the Volcano Geysers, Old Faithful and all the stuff around it.  There was a lot of walking.  It about did us all in.  Steve did a very good job with the walking.  It wore him out and he slept like a log.

Along the way in the car, we stopped several times to view more animals.  Our favorite stop was to see buffalo.  (I have a bunch of pictures to post later).  It was amazing all the different stages of shedding the buffalo were in.  Some were as slick as a tick and others looked so mangey with their winter coats hanging in tatters.  We actually got close to several.  Three of them were just off one of the paths we walked to see Morning Glory Pool.  The best was the traffic jam.  We came to a complete stop around the Twin Lakes area.  The traffic was backed up for mile.  We actually thought their was an accident.   As the line slowly moved, we discovered that two huge buffalo were walking down the center of the road.   They were stopping traffic dead.  It was so silly looking:  a pair of buffalo with a line of cars following.  The best was when it was a motorcyclists turn to go around.  He didn't know what to do.  Every time he would start, one of the buffalo when turn and go to him.  Finally after 30 minutes, we passed.

The lakes and streams were crystal clear.  We saw several people fly fishing.  Steve really wants to go back and fish the Yellowstone river inside and outside of the park.  We are already planning a trip back.  :)

We did see the rear end of a bear.  By the time we got parked out of the car and to the spot, he was heading down over the hill.  We didn't see anymore bear.  Bummer.

As you have guessed by now, we are heading east on I-90 towards home.  We are somewhere between billings, MT and Sheridan, WY.  I drove for several hours this morning and now Steve is behind the wheel.  We are flying at about 75 mph.  It is wonderful.  We are following I-90 east clear to Des Moines, IA and then south on I-35 to Kansas City, and then I-71 to I-44 home.  From our hotel last night, Google Maps said it was a 24 hour trip.  I think we can make it quicker since we are literally flying.  We have to take this way home because the Missouri River is still flooded and I-29 is closed in many places between Sioux Falls and the Missouri border.

I am going to post more about our day today, tonight.  I think it is about time for me to take over the wheel again.  Steve is getting tired.