Day 13

September 25, 2009
Fire! Fire! Fire! Yesterday as we crossed through Teton Pass there was a fire that almost obstructed our view of the Tetons. When we left our cabin in Driggs Idaho today, we were hoping for a better view but the fire had left a haze that continued to hide some of the mountains. We traveled through Teton National Park and saw amazing scenery, stopping for lunch at Jackson Lake…fluffernutters again!
We entered Yellowstone at the South entrance…so exciting! The ranger at the gate told us that the bridge we needed to take to get to our final destination for the day, Gardiner Montana, was closed for renovations. We changed our route and as we approached the new road we were to take, there was a big roadblock and rangers were telling people to turn around because there was a fire on that road…in Yellowstone! We drove up to the Ranger and told him our situation and he allowed us to pass…saying that we were one of the last cars he was allowing to go through! We didn’t really see much smoke but we did see some wonderful sights… a herd of buffalo, a coyote, deer and in the middle of the town square in Mamouth Hot Springs… a herd of Elk…just roaming around the square! The ride through Yellowstone was like a rollercoaster, with huge peaks and valleys and incredible vistas…nothing we were prepared for!
We arrived at our hotel at about 6ish, tired but amazed. What a day of sightseeing! Our plans for tomorrow originally included an in depth tour of Yellowstone but that’s up in the air now until we sort out what roads are open/closed because of fire.
A couple of other funnies: Yesterday while we were stopped at a road block (there’s a ton of road work everywhere) we heard a strange loud clicking and Bill began a discussion of the sex life of some obscure bug that was making the noise. As we all listened intently, John shook his head and said “I swear he’s just pulling this stuff out of his ass”!!!! We laughed….So from then on, anytime Bill told us any scientific, geographic or historical tidbits, they were called “Anal Factoids”! We’ll share upcoming anal factoids with you as we go along.
In addition, during the trip, 3 of us have spent an enormous amount of time waiting for 1 person!!! And that person is Bill (where’s Waldo) Morrell. Every time we turn around, he’s gone!!! We’re constantly saying “where’s Bill” So we’re looking into some sort of tracking device. As we keep telling him…we don’t care that you’ve gone somewhere, just tell us you’re going so we can stop looking for you!!!!
And as a follow up to yesterday’s story, John and the Switches and Buttons…as we approached the road block at Yellowstone, I asked John, who you may remember sits up front, to take a picture of the activity…I handed him my camera and asked him to just click. Included here you’ll see his continued prowess with buttons and switches…I did not alter the pictures he took in any way!
One more thing: We love reading your comments on the blog even though we can’t (don’t know how) respond…we read them all…keep ‘em coming!
And one last thing…HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAUREEN!!!!!
Today’s Road Lesson: Where there’s smoke, there’s fire!!!
PS You're gettin this Blog on te 26th because there was a travel blog problm last night!

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Part of trip: Sparkling Earrings Tour

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