On the road

Ladies vacation was fun this summer.  We saw this big boy and his friends.  In fact, we almost had a run-in with one of his friends, but that is another story all together.  Mom, Lan, and I jumped in the motor home and hit the road for a week in September to Montana and Wyoming.  We thought vacation time would be over and Yellowstone National Park would be fairly quiet.  Wrong.  The fishing was incredible (and me without my fishing gear...boo hiss).  But it was wonderful, no snow, warm days, cold nights, still lots of people, wild animals, and beautiful vistas.

We saw Old Faithful several times.  Never gets old. 

There were elk, deer, and buffalo.  We didn't see the man-eating bear.  He killed 2 people this summer before we got there.  Even in town, the place we camped had a bear proof trash bin. I hear you don't have to run that fast to avoid a bear, just faster than the people you are with.  I can.

There are signs everywhere in East Yellowstone where we stayed that say "snow mobile parking" and a lady we talked to said almost everyone drives a snowmobile in the winter because how else are you going to get around, right?  I've been watching the weather reports and it's been snowing off and on for two weeks there.  That's just the start.  It will snow all winter.

They had an I Max theater, so we saw the Yellowstone story, which was very cool, but after watching Mom watch the beginning of the show, I'm not so sure it was a good idea.  She has been suffering from vertigo and is taking medication for dizziness, and the opening scene was a helicopter swooping down a snow covered mountain into a valley.  Kind of like riding a roller coaster.  We told her she couldn't throw up and embarrass us or we would pretend we didn't know her and she'd be on her own.  She didn't so we were fine.  It was so fun we went back and saw the Lewis and Clark show. 

Our almost encounter with a huge buffalo happened as we were returning back to camp.  It was almost dark, and on the side of the the road there is this enormous buffalo ambling along, a big black shadow until you're right beside him, and then he thinks he needs to walk in the lane we're driving in which is a step short of exciting because it is a narrow 2-lane road to begin with, but we don't hit him which is good because it would probably make him really mad and the little dent caused by hitting him would be nothing compared to the stomping he could give the side of our motor home.  Other than severe heart palpitations all around (except for the buffalo, who I'm sure is wishing all these tourists would just go home), it worked out fine.

On the trip home, we got some bad gas in Missolua (in the tank, not in us), which gave us an adventure.  Going over Look Out Pass in Montana the motor home chugged, burped, sputtered and then died.  Right there in the road.  Unfortunately, there was major road construction and traffic was one lane each way.  Also unfortunately, the semi truck behind us was coming on pretty fast.  Fortunately he stopped.  Unfortunately, there was a string of cars behind him who didn't know we were the cause of the problem, didn't care, and didn't want to be stopped on the pass in the middle of the day.  There is a LOT of traffic on that road.  Amazing lot.

But a couple of angels in work boots and blue jeans pulled us out of traffic with their white half ton pick up.  One of them took Lan to where there was cell phone reception so she could call AAA.  The other puttered with the motor home and, after the engine rested for a bit, we got it started again.  Right when Lan showed up.  So we got over the top of the pass, stopped in Wheeler and got some magic "get rid of the nasty gas taste of Missolua gas" additive, grabbed some huckleberry ice cream cones, and made it home just fine. 

It was a grand trip.