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Elk on the road
It was a little too dark outside to get a good picture of the elk crossing We embarked on our third day quite early 5 am. We were headed through Yellowstone to Seattlle. Unfortunately, the cabin we stayed in did not have fresh coffee. Without coffee, we zombies were headed into what felt like the apocalypse. We approached the park and the sun was starting to glimpse through the mountain tops. The sun rise made the mountain tops gleam. Even without coffee the sights seemed to awaken me, however I cannot say the same for Tim.
Approaching the Yellowstone Lake Tim pointed out something he saw on a ridge. While he was looking at the ridge I yelled, “Tim look out!” A herd of 50 plus killer Elk began to cross right in front of the car. The funny thing is right before this happened I told Tim, “I bet we will see animals down by the Lake.” Sure enough we saw animals. Luckily they did not damage our car. We continued to drive though the park and got beautiful glimpses of nature. The landscape was covered with River’s, Mountains, Geysers, hot springs, and waterfalls. Along the way you would see a stray buffalo or 2 on the side of the road.
Old Faithful was on our things to do in Yellowstone. As we parked at Old Faithful the kids whined about how cold it was and moaned about going to the landmark. We Walked around the visitor center and Old Faithful came in to view. Remarkably it was beginning to smoke. How is that for timing, as we did not look at the schedule of its eruptions. It was amazing to watch the water spill from the ground. It appeared as if a rocket was shooting in the air. The trail of hot liquid left its mark across the sky. I embraced the beauty and snapped a few pictures in front of the eruption of the kids. I was in awe of the beauty of this natural landscape, however the children were not. They replied it is cold and headed back to the car.
After Old Faithful we drove a little more and stopped at a beautiful waterfall. Here is where we changed drivers as my zombified husband had not located coffee yet. At this point I was sure he would need IV caffeine to revive him. It was difficult to sight see now and drive. We drove through
endless miles of wilderness to the last town in Yellowstone named Hot Springs/Mammoth. Here we saw a beautiful white rock covered with smoke on a mountain side. The best sight however was an open gas station to get coffee at. Coffee in hand we left Yellowstone and ventured into Montana.
Montana was filled with high’s and low’s in landscape that is. You would see a stray animal on the roadside. I was blessed to see a mother moose feeding her 2 calves. I drove for 4-5 hours, then changed to Devin driving on the interstate. I was incredibly grateful the speed limit was 80 through Montana, as it would have been so much longer to get through the state.
Our next stop was a rest stop with a mountain in the distant to eat lunch. I believe there were signs to watch for snakes. Tim took over driving for a while. After hours of driving we finally made it to Washington state. As we crossed into a new state it was a great celebration for me. It was wonderful to experience the landscape of different states, so I would celebrate. Leaving Indiana has been
few and between for me up until recent years. The first 200 miles of Washington were quite flat and good driving. Google maps kept taunting me for hours about traffic delays as we enclosed on Seattle. I was going to drive the last leg of this day, something I regret now as I reflect. Why did I not choose to drive the flat Montana landscape.
We got closer to Seattle and mountaintops. Google maps began to loudly resound do you want to detour around the 1:30 hours traffic jam. We pressed the button for our new route a jot off the interstate. Who would have thought I was driving the countryside of a mountain?
It was a scary drive with very windy roads and sides that dropped into ravines. We drove 20 miles or so and got back on a still backed up Interstate. It amazes me sometimes when you find out why traffic is backed up. Our little detour and backed-up traffic cost us at least 2 precious hours of our vacation. After 16 hours of driving we finally made it to North of Seattle and our hotel. My husband graciously went out and found
Little Caesars Pizza. It was an exhausting drive, but Issac still had enough energy for the hotel pool. The kids took off to the pool and I collapsed in our nice hotel room with 3 Queen beds in one room.
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