Greetings from Yellowstone National Park!

---

Greetings from Yellowstone National Park! We left Cody, Wyoming this morning after a wonderful visit and started heading further west. We drove over the Absorka Mountain Range on the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway. We were able to cross over into Montana by driving through a little town called Cooke City. We had about a two hour drive to the north east entrance to Yellowstone National Park. Once we entered the park, we began looking for big game. It was always exciting to see a group of cars pulled over on the side of the road because you knew that they were looking at some animals. Throughout the day, we were able to find a herd of bison and their calves in Lamar Valley. We were also fortunate to see some moose, elk, mule deer and prong horn. I was hoping to see a grizzly or black bear - but no such luck! We pulled over the Westie to see some fantastic waterfalls at Upper Falls near Artist Point. The view was incredible, although I kept worrying that the girls were going to fall over the rock wall and plunge into Yellowstone River. Our last stop for the day was Old Faithful. We had to cross over the Continental Divide to get there. A little piece of geography for you - any water source west of the divide flows into the Pacific Ocean and any water source east of the divide flows into the Gulf of Mexico. We timed seeing Old Faithful perfectly because it erupted within fifteen minutes of our arrival. It was pretty impressive! We also walked around and saw a few other smaller geysers. The girls kept commenting on the sulfuric smell. They also leaned down once to touch the water coming out of the geyser and couldn’t believe how warm it was! All in all, it was a great day, but we’re all pretty tired! We’re heading south right now to the Grand Tetons to camp for the night. The girls are looking forward to Tony’s mac and cheese and I’m looking forward to a chicken pad thai dinner made from Ramen noodles. Tomorrow, we plan on hanging out in the Jackson Hole area for the day. On Wednesday, we will go white water rafting on the Snake River and then Thursday is the day that the girls have been wating for - horseback riding in the Tetons! A couple fun pieces of info: Tony and I had mouse poop on our car seats this morning - nasty! We also found a half-eaten package of crackers in the back of the Westy. Yuck! We hope our little furry rodent isn’t still traveling with us! Tony and I are into this license plate challenge where we try to find plates from all fifty states. It’s actually become an obsession, but it keeps us occupied on long driving days. We only need to find 11 more states including Hawaii (fat chance!). Believe it or not - we did find Alaska! One sad piece of news, I washed my beloved cell phone with the laundry last night. Now I feel like my left arm has been cut off! All of my chatty friends can still leave me voice mails and I can check them on Tony’s cell phone. I’m planning on picking up another phone once I get to San Fran. Updated stats: We have traveled 1, 980.2 miles so far, averaged 53.7 mph while driving, and our highest altitude has been 8, 859 feet. Total time in the car has been 36 hours and 55 minutes (Lord, help us!) Total miles until we get to our final trip destination of San Fran: 1, 015.4 miles. Total gas expense is $450.55, but Tony is getting ready to fill up - AGAIN! Thanks to those of you who have left comments on our blog! It’s so fun to read them. See you in Jackson Hole!

---