In goodfashion, we left Mt. Rushmore a bit later than we would have liked. Part of the problem was the lack of cell phone service resulting in a dead battery which was supposed to be our 6 AM alarm clock. The second was trying to pry Alyson out from under the covers. Her first night camping was a success, at least in my book. Once she got over the lack of flush toilets (I think she just held it until we made it to a rest area before Wyoming), and the howling wind at 2 AM that made me second guess how secure our tent really was, we did quite well.
As we headed off on our drive, we left the Black Hills (though if you compared them to the Berkshires which they consider mountains, either the Berkshires need a downgrade or the hills deserve more respect as mountains. Into the prairies of western South Dakota, we were soon in Wyoming. The speed limit increased to 75, and the traffic was almost non existent. Although one note, many of the country roads are posted at 65, and you can make good time on them but don’t go over a hill and try to pass a cop. He WILL pull you over. Luckily he was very friendly and gave me a warning for going 77 in a 65. I thought cruise control was going to save me, btu I guess it only works when you cruise at or under the speed limit.
Also, I have learned on this trip that you CAN NOT beat Google Maps estimated travel time. You will stop to pee and get gas, and since the good weather season is so short, especially out west, they loveto do all their road construction. And when you enter a construction zone, it is one lane, they have a lead car, its almost like NASCAR, you can’t pass them and its a red flag until they bring the other direction of traffic over. The construction added at least an hour to our travel yesterday.
Once in Wyoming, we soon saw a slight bit of white off in the distance. I told Alyson to check out the snow on
the mountains, but she said that it was just clouds. It was so far off, that I was wondering if it was an illusion that perhaps the sky was slightly darker below the clouds or not. Another 10 miles later, we soon both realized it was snow, and those were mountains. A good 75 miles passed before we actually got close to them. At last, we drove through the Tetons of Wyoming, going over a 9,600 ft pass, with snow in the shady gulleys, and entered Yellowstone. There were bison along the side of the road EVERYWHERE! It took us another hour to make it to our campsite.As we entered the grounds for our campsite, Alyson having realized we were 50 miles away from the nearest cell tower and was essentially cut off from civilization for the next 48 hours saw a sign with 3 arching lines on it (similar to a Wi-Fi here sign you see at Panera and Mc Donalds these days). Well, she was overcome with excitement begging me to use my laptop for internet access for just 30 minutes. I first told her she was crazy and we were roughing it, and upon check in she soon realzied the sign was not for wi-fi but in fact for an amphitheater they had shows in. You can imagine her reaction upon this realization.
The fire and cooking was a bit of a challenge as I’ll let Alyson discuss (take what she says with a grain of salt, I am not that bad of a fire starter!), and the night was freezing! The temperatures dipped down into the 30s (we are at almost 8,000 feet).
-Dave
I am writing this from Yellowstone! As you can see, I survived my first night camping. It wasn’t too bad. The wind last night, though, was really strong. I thought I was going to blow away (luckily I didn’t). No bears or animals snuck into the tent (that I know of). I also made sure I didn’t have to use the bathroom before we left (but I am pretty sure my bladder was minutes away from exploding). I hope there are flush toilets tonight!
Today was a day full of driving. Again, a later than anticipated start, thankfully. The ride was a little longer than I had wanted, but I got to see cool western towns that we passed through. It looked like the old cowboy movies. There were huge rocks and ranches, and the further we went, the bigger the rocky hills/mountains were. Then we got to a point where we saw snow covered mountains! I have decided that Wachusett, Sugarloaf, etc are hills, not mountains. These mountains (Tetons) are so huge and pointy. Seeing all of this is so much better than seeing it in pictures. The ride pretty much consisted of me yelling, “Look!” and then pointing the other way, “Look!”
Along the way we hit a few bumps in the road. As I had mentioned, we had a run-in with the police. Dave was going a little bit too fast (shocking, huh?) and came right up on a cop on the highway, “Is that a cop?!?…Oh crap, it’s a cop...Oh, he’s turning. We’re fine…Um, Alyson? Do you mind getting the registration out of the glove compartment?” Luckily we only got a warning, and hopefully this will be the last of these occurrences. Half an hour later, we pulled into a McDonalds parking lot and used their WiFi (last post). This is when I noticed his windshield. “Hun, don’t freak out, but I think I have bad news…” So there is a decently sized crack in his windshield, which is funny because we had seen heaps of cars with cracked windshields and chuckled about it. Itwill be fine, and it is at the top. It is growing slightly, but Dave is in denial.
When we arrived to Yellowstone, we were greeted with a Ranger who gave us the bear talk. I have had talks like going off to college, the sex talk, the talk when you turn 21, but the bear talk that she delivered was by far the most scary! You have to hang food 10 feet above the ground but 4 feet away from a tree trunk if you want to keep food out (otherwise put it in your car), they have a keen sense of smell for food and cosmetics(deoderant, perfume, etc), they can run 3 times faster than a person, people have seen bears a bunch already this year, etc. We had a little bit of a drive to our campsite and along the way we saw snow, bison, and waterfall runoffs, but I didn’t want to get out of the car (I was way too scared that bears were watching me). The only time I got out was to go to the lake.
The campsite is really nice that we are at. There are a bunch of people which makes me feel more comfortable about the bear situation, but they are far enough away so we aren’t on top of each other. There is a bathroom with running water and flush toilets (and there are hot showers 4
miles down the road)! I feel so spoiled with these luxuries.Making dinner was probably the funniest adventure all day. We finished the marinated chicken, made summer squash, and had rice. It took about two hours to make the water boil for the summer squash and rice, and we only had a pan big enough to make half of the rice in the box! We attempted making a fire, but after a hour and a half and five “It’s roaring”s and then “Oh crap, it’s out again,” I decided to ask our friendly neighbors for some help. Everyone else had really nice fires, but we had a pitiful attempt at a fire (which looked more like a candle). Dave was not happy about this (he mumbled something about his manhood), but I really wanted a fire! It took 4 men, Dave, and I to finally make a fire. Dave wants me to mention that after that, it almost went out again, but he save the day by keeping it going.
I guess that’s all for today’s trip. I can’t wait for tomorrow’s when we see Old Faithful!
Nighty night,
Alyson
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