Lessons Learned

Some days it felt like this:

SUPERMAN IS DOWN! THE TRIP WAS TOO MUCH FOR HIM!

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TEN THINGS I LEARNED FROM OUR WILD WEST TRIP:

10. I learned that I often take for granted the simple inventions that make life so much easier. Things like – a windshield. Without our van’s windshield, we would have been splattered with bugs and pelted with hail. Instead, it was our windshield which took the hits. Thanks, windshield!

9. I learned that the three most harrowing drives on this trip were (in reverse order): Iron Mountain Road, Pike’s Peak, and Chicago.

8. I learned that travel websites like gasbuddy, mapquest, travelocity, and tripadvisor really do work!

7. I learned that my daughters really, really, really love horses. They consider their time with Asia to be the most unforgettable moment of the trip.

6. I learned that I have really good taste in music. (I loaded up my ipod over a year ago and had forgotten all the cool tunes that were on it!)

5. I learned that if I ever go out west again, I’m going to budget more time for driving in Yellowstone and also more down time for just relaxing and swimming.

4. I learned that if I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own back yard. Because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with! (Oh wait, that’s the Wizard of Oz!)

3. I learned that we live in a country that is amazingly beautiful and special in so many different ways.

2. I learned that fast food stops tasting good after about five or six meals of it in a row.

1. I learned that God is an incredible artist with an infinite imagination and a limitless palette.

Acknowledgements:

Thanks . . .
to God, for making such a wonderful world and seeing us through our travels safely.
to Dave MacRaild, my high school principal who led a trip out west from Woodridge High School over 20 years ago which inspired me to take my family on this adventure;
to the Science Hill VBS staff, my mom, and an anonymous donor who gave us gas money toward our trip;
to Adam and Patti and Addison for hosting us and our laundry;
to Mark and Julie for providing the great horse experience for our daughters;
to my wife and kids for putting up with my go-go-go attitude;
and to you, for reading this blog. I appreciated reading all the comments, even though I chose early on not to respond because I wasn’t sure that I could do so consistently on the road.

I think more people read this blog than I thought, and it was even linked in a Yellowstone site at one point. (By the way, that inflammatory and infamous “liberal” commenter was discovered to be none other than Dave Stofka, that prankster!)

Writing regularly, even on the road, reminded me why I like writing. This blog helped me to organize my thoughts and preserve a record of the things we did each day, something that would certainly have been lost if I hadn’t keep notes. I always intend to journal but rarely follow through. This blog helped me to do it.

In a way, blogging our trip was a modern-version of something my dad used to do on our family trips. He would make audio tape recordings of our vacations to keep track of the hilarious things that went wrong and our reactions to them. (We were famous for stopping to eat within 15 minutes of leaving home!)

Now we’re home again and the house is quiet. (Well, sort of.) For many years I have been looking forward to this trip. It feels weird to have this journey completed after so much planning and preparation. It really was an adventure! Debbie says that our next trip will be some place boring and peaceful, like the beach, so it probably won’t be blog-worthy.

The West is a beautiful region and, in spite of the long, long drives, the high gas prices and the missing of a class reunion, I am very glad we went. Sometimes it feels like our kids will be with us forever, but we know that really isn’t true. We have to live life and make memories while we have the chance!

Oh, but anyway, Toto, we’re home. Home! And this is my room, and you’re all here. And I’m not gonna leave here ever, ever again, because I love you all, and – oh, Auntie Em – there’s no place like home!
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The Home Stretch

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Katherine would not get out of bed.

Later, she told me to write that sentence to describe the beginning of the day. She is tough to get up in the morning when she stays up late! Eventually we got her up. Bethany, on the other hand, hopped out of bed very willingly.

We packed our suitcases, loaded up the van, and got out of the Bloomington Super 8 at 10:22 a.m. after a nice continental breakfast. We drove east into Wisconsin, stopping for lunch at a Red Robin in Eau Claire. This was our family's first time at a Red Robin, so we were excited to try it out. We felt it was just okay.

After lunch, we continued cruising along I-94 to I-90 which we took to Chicago via Madison and Janesville (where we picked up a newspaper for Debbie's sister Judy!) We drove through the absolutely crazy Chicago rush hour traffic on the bypass 494, stopping for supper at a little oasis built over the road (Daniel, Katherine, and Debbie ate at McDonald’s, Bethany at Auntie Anne’s Pretzels, and Jon ate Panda Express again.)

We got back on 494 around Chicago. We took the express lane to I-80 and were making really good time until we came to a DEAD STOP for 45 long minutes. Finally, things started moving again. It was getting late, so we tried to get a hotel in Portage, Indiana, but they were all sold out, so we went on to South Bend and stayed at a Super 8 that was nearly impossible to find! They had a pool, but it was too late to go swimming and we were all exhausted anyway.


Thursday, July 10, 2008

We got up and had hot waffles for breakfast. Yum! Then Jon and the kids took a swim in the hotel's heated indoor pool.

We checked out at 10:59 a.m. (just in time!) and hit the road for Ohio. We drove for a couple of hours and stopped at a Burger King along the Ohio Turnpike for lunch. Then we drove a few more hours and arrived safely home at 4:52 p.m. having driven 5338 miles and being gone from home for 440 hours. What a trip! It's one we won't soon forget (or recover from!)

I'll share my thoughts about the whole trip in my final post tomorrow . . .

A Change of Plans

Today seemed like a very short day. Maybe that’s because we slept in until almost 10 a.m.! This vacation stuff is really getting exhausting!

After our continental breakfast at the Days Inn Mitchell, we packed up and checked out. We filled up the van (Jon is having a hard time figuring out these gas blends out here – we put in “super” 89 octane that was cheaper than the "regular" 87, but the "super" contains 10% ethanol. The van doesn’t seem to mind . . .)

Around noon, we arrived at the world-famous Corn Palace of Mitchell. You might think I’m exaggerating, but there was a push pin map of countries of the world, and they have had many visitors from all over the globe even since May! In fact, the United States map had been restarted on July 7 and we were already the second family from Alliance there!

The Corn Palace contains many murals and decorations, inside and out, made from corn and cornhusks, re-decorated annually. It began in 1892 with the very first Corn Palace. They are already decorating it for 2009, hoping to get it done before the big Corn Festival in August. (I’m kind of glad we won’t be here for that – it was getting all too much “Children of the Corn” for me!)

I was last at the Mitchell Corn Palace in 1987. Here is what it looked like then:

We ate lunch at Arby’s, bought some additional water and Kool-Aid at the Big K-mart, and hit the road. Our original plan called for us to drive over halfway home on Tuesday and arrive back in Alliance on Wednesday evening. But because it was already nearly 1:30 and we hadn’t even left Mitchell yet, we made an executive decision. We decided to extend our vacation by one day and instead just go to Bloomington, MN, tonight to see the Mall of America. (I call it an executive decision because Debbie said it was okay!) Then we plan to finish the drive home on Wednesday and Thursday.

We drove east on I-90 into Minnesota and then north to Minneapolis. We checked into a Super 8 for the night and then went to explore the Mall of America. It is gigundous. (Yes, I know that is not a word, but it fits.) I took this picture while driving - not bad, eh?

There are four levels and the entire mall is built around a huge indoor amusement park. There is an indoor aquarium which we didn’t even get to, a huge Lego Imagination Center that had Jon and Daniel drooling, a Disney Store, a kitchen gadget store which had Debbie drooling, a game store with dozens of versions of Monopoly, and 2 food courts, which had us all drooling because we were very hungry by this point. Jon had the Chinese (Panda Express), Debbie, Daniel and Bethany the Mexican (Taco Bell) and Katherine the American (Burger King)

Those are all various Monopoly versions in the pictures above! I like how Bethany's face matches Ralphie's from "Christmas Story Monopoly". That was a complete accident!

We capped the night off by riding some rides at the Nickolodeon Universe Amusement Park – we all rode the indoor log ride which was A LOT of fun, Daniel rode a couple of coasters and the girls did a mini-coaster and swings.

The only bummer was that by the time we were done, the place was closing and we missed out on eating at the Nestle Toll House store which we were really looking forward to. Oh well, I guess you have to save something for next time!

Upon our return to the Super 8, we put the kids to bed and Debbie and Jon got to slip off to the hot tub for a short time. Tomorrow we have to log some serious miles!

Aloha!

Monday, July 7, was our day to bid farewell to the Black Hills region of South Dakota.

We began by loading up the van and checking out of our cabin. We decided to go shopping in Custer at some of the little souvenir places. We saw a neat rock and fossil store, and a cute candy shop. Katherine once again added to her growing keychain collection. She has bought about 5 or 6 keychains on this trip. I tease her that she needs these keychains for "all her keys".

Then it was off to Wall Drug in Wall, SD. It’s hard to explain this store, but picture a chaotic mass of souvenir shops, tourist attractions, and tired travellers all crammed under one roof. Wall Drug began as a pharmacy in the 1930s offering free ice water. They still offer free ice water today, which Jon and Daniel had with their lunch. Another special thing about Wall Drug is that the store is advertised for hundreds of miles along roadways with pithy billboards and signs.

And here's the news you've been waiting for . . . (drum roll, please!) While parking the car, we finally spotted the elusive Hawaiian license plate, thus successfully concluding our quest to find all 50 states! Imagine seeing it at Wall Drug, of all places!

Wall Drug is quite the eclectic place. While there, we also saw a mechanical T-Rex, we played arcade games (they had "Lord of the Rings" pinball!), we got our picture taken with a tatanka, we saw a jackalope, and we did a little shopping.

Our next detour was a scenic drive through the Badlands National Park.

These interesting formations were caused by erosion and left banded streaks of color on the sides of strange-looking cliffs and valleys.

We next drove for several hours through South Dakota (another big state), crossing into Central Time, and stopping for dinner at the Missouri River at a place called Al’s Oasis. Another hour of driving brought us to Mitchell where we stayed for the night at a Days Inn. The kids loved the pool which had a giant waterslide. They ended up playing in there for over an hour!

Caves and Their Unfortunate Consequences . . .

Our vacation began to catch up with us a little bit today (Sunday, July 6) as we got off to a slow start. We made a breakfast out of milk, doughnuts, and other groceries that Debbie had bought for us the day before. Afterwards, Jon and Katherine played a little miniature golf while Daniel and Bethany played out on the playground.

In the late morning, we headed out for the day's adventures in the Black Hills. Katherine had been hoping for weeks that we would have "Van Church" on this trip, and today she got her wish. We sang some hymns ("This Is The Day", "How Great Thou Art"), we prayed (although I was driving so I kept my eyes open), and I tried to collect an offering. No luck with this bunch. The sermon was each of us sharing something we had learned about God through our trip. Some of the lessons mentioned included that God is powerful, that He likes variety and made many beautiful things, and that He gives us challenges to grow through and overcome.



In the early afternoon, we arrived at Wind Cave National Park. Wind Cave is the 4th largest cave in the world. That sounds pretty impressive until you learn that it is only the 2nd longest cave in its county. Jewel Cave, just down the road, is the 2nd longest cave in the world! Still, we were very happy with our choice of exploring Wind Cave.



Wind Cave has a unique feature called “boxwork” that formed from the erosion within the cave. It kind of looks like a three-dimensional spiderweb. Wind Cave has been mapped to be 129.1 miles long (so far). At ground level is a beautiful wildlife reserve for prairie dogs and bison. 200 feet beneath the surface are fascinating caverns and passages that we traveled through. It was quite cool. The Park prides itself on being "two worlds, one park." It's called Wind Cave because the original, natural opening is quite small and when the air pressure changes outside, wind rushes in or out of the opening. We traveled about 1/4 of a mile underground.

After spelunking, we went to Pizza Hut in Hot Springs for a rather mediocre meal.

Then in the late afternoon it was off to "The Mammoth Site" in Hot Springs. The Mammoth Site is an archeological dig that began in the 1970s with the accidental discovery of mammoth bones during construction work for a planned housing development. It turns out that over 50 mammoths were buried at this site due to a sinkhole that opened up 30,000 years ago when a cave collapsed underneath it (I’m glad I didn’t hear about these collapsing caves before we went to Wind Cave!) The sinkhole filled with water and grass grew around the edge year-round because it was warm (a hot spring). Mammoths approached and, if they fell in the water, they couldn’t get out because of the steep slope. The mud then preserved their bones. Interestingly, all of the trapped mammoths were male and all but one were adolescents. Mammoths belong to the elephant family and apparently elephants are matriarchal. (Boy, do I know how that feels!) So these elephant boys may have been loners, banished from the herd, and wandered to their doom.



The Mammoth Site Foundation built a huge building right over the dig where it is ongoing 7 weeks a year as they painstakingly process the fossils (mammoths and many other small animals) the other 45 weeks. Very interesting!



Bethany and Katherine were picked out of our touring group to hold a mammoth jaw cast and take it around for everyone to touch. Those shoe-tread-looking things are the mammoth's teeth!

And here is Daniel posing with a mammoth thigh bone to give you an idea of how big these creatures were. I bet Toby would love that as a souvenir!



The Mammoth Site was really a lot of fun and very interesting.

We scoured the parking lots of both The Mammoth Site and Wind Cave National Park for a Hawaii license plate, but came up empty. The kids are really starting to get desperate!

On the way back to Custer, the kids clamored to stop at a kiosk/4-sided bulletin board at a motel that had all these state license plates nailed to it. They insisted that finding a Hawaii plate on this kiosk would "count" and that they would thus get their milkshakes. I argued that I wasn't so sure such a find would be considered valid. It didn't matter, anyway, however as they couldn't find Hawaii on it. Still no luck . . .

We returned to the campground and the kids and Jon all went swimming and into the hot tub. The pool was a little cold and buggy, but felt good. The kids thought that was the best part of the day!

At the pool, we met some of our neighbors from cabin #17 (I think it was the John Adams cabin). They were vacationing from "Alliance", Nebraska, and were very curious about our trip and the cost of gas.

After a supper of pizza leftovers and other miscellaneous foodstuffs, we packed up and got ready to depart the next day for our return trip home.

By the way, here's that long-lost video footage of the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River:

Rush More!

On Saturday morning, July 5, we woke up in the motel we didn’t want to stay in. As there was no continental breakfast, we drove into Custer and ate at the Cowboy Restaurant. It was decorated all around the room with deer heads and steer horns, and I teased the kids that we would be eating those animals for our breakfast. Then I noticed that there was also a large number of cowboy hats on the walls. Yikes!

After breakfast, we drove to the Presidents’ Campground to get our lodging arrangments straightened out. To their credit, they admitted their mistake in giving away our room, lowered their rates, and upgraded us to a nice cabin that sleeps 6. It is #18, the Thomas Jefferson cabin. I liked that, because my great-great-great-great-great grandfather was a friend and admirer of Thomas Jefferson. The campground has a big outdoor pool, a hot tub, a free miniature golf course, and an arcade with a "Star Trek: The Next Generation" pinball machine! We were all set! After we transferred all our stuff to our new cabin and did a little grocery shopping, we enjoyed the camp’s amenities in the early afternoon.

Around 3:00, we decided it was time to go to Mount Rushmore. We drove through Custer State Park and saw a big herd of “tatanka”. We drove a veeerrry windy, twisty road called the Iron Mountain Highway to Mount Rushmore. It was cool because there are small tunnels you drive through which are designed to perfectly frame Mount Rushmore as you come out of them. There are also sections of “pig tail bridges” which wind around so much that you go 270 degrees and end up driving under the bridge you just crossed. The kids enjoyed a scenic overlook where they could crawl around on the rocks that looked and felt like they were made out of iron. Here they are in a small tunnel of these iron rocks:

We arrived at Mount Rushmore around 4:30 and promptly found the cafeteria. The food was good, but expensive. Debbie and I had chicken, Bethany pot roast, Daniel spaghetti, and Katherine had a buffet off all our plates.

Then we spent several hours exploring the Mount Rushmore area. We went down to the Visitor Center with its museum, 2 theaters and gift shop. Then we hiked the Presidential Trail around the base of Mount Rushmore. Very cool. We went to the main gift store and then got settled in our seats around 8:30 for the evening program which began at 9:00. It was very patriotic and stirring and culminated with the lighting of Mount Rushmore at 9:30. It included a film in which we saw many highlights of America we had seen earlier on this trip, such as the Arch and Old Faithful. Since the line for ice cream had been so long after supper, we took this opportunity to get some big cones and enjoy the night air and the lit-up sculptures. We had a contest of seeing what we could sculpt out of the ice cream on our cones. The people at the next table thought we were crazy! It was a little bit like encouraging our children to play with their food.

We returned to the campground (via a different route than the Iron Mountain Highway!) and arrived shortly after 11:00 and got settled for bed.

Still no Hawaii plate. We had figured that Mount Rushmore was our last best chance to get this plate. Will we ever find it??

As American as the Fourth of July

We woke up on Independence Day, July 4, to some strange noises coming from outside our motel room. Upon investigation, we learned that we were on the parade route for the Cody Fourth of July Parade. The good news is that the parade was a really big deal - long, with a lot of floats and interesting characters. The bad news is that the only road we could use to get out of the motel was closed for the parade until 11:30. That made for us getting a very late start for the day.

Here are some pictures from the parade. It was really a Cowboy Parade. (Cody is known for its rodeos - they have one here EVERY NIGHT in the summer.) I never saw so many horses in a parade in my life! An added bonus was that I got to see former Senator Alan Simpson in the parade. So though I missed Bob Dole in Russell, Kansas, I did get to see his friend. This Cody parade must have been a big thing throughout Wyoming as the marching band from a high school in Cheyenne showed up to take part in it.

We soon stopped for lunch at McDonald’s – again. Jon vowed that this would be the last time! We occasionally stopped to look at some beautiful scenery along the route through Wyoming, which is a long state to get through no matter where you are going. Climbed to 9666 feet in elevation and let the kids have a snowball fight on July 4. That's something they will always remember. We figure that will be our last snowball fight on our trip.

We filled up the van and Debbie strongly recommended we get a car wash. No amount of logic could dissuade her that it was just going to get all buggy and dirty again imminently, so we got it washed.

The next big thing was going to Devils Tower, which was America's First National Monument. It seemed kind of appropriate to be there on July 4, especially when we learned that it had historically been a gathering place for neighboring ranchers on July 4ths of yesteryear.







We hiked the loop trail all the way around Devils Tower. At first Katherine was pretty grumbly about this, but she soon made friends with a little three-year-old boy named Oleg who wanted to walk with her and hold her hand. (Little kids always seem to like Katherine!) We struck up a conversation with Oleg's parents and learned that they were in the midst of a move from Florida to California and had been camping along the way. They had just spent the previous night at Mount Rushmore and saw the July 3 fireworks there. They were headed to Yellowstone, where we had just been. We gave them some suggestions, and they recommended Wind Cave in the Black Hills to us.

While at Devils Tower, we also saw a large and active Prairie Dog Colony. For family fun, we decided to all make up our own legends about how Devils Tower formed since there are a variety of Indian legends and scientific theories.

Since we were in a hurry, we stopped for supper at a convenience mart where all of us (except Debbie) found something to eat.

We arrived in Custer just as the fireworks were going off. We pulled off and managed to watch most of them.

Now came the first real problem of our trip so far. You might call it the "wicked glitch of the west." Although we had made a 3-night reservation weeks earlier at the Custer Motel and verified it with a credit card, they had given away our room which slept six. They told us that we would be given equal accommodations at two cabins in a campground 2 miles down the road. Somewhat disgusted but without recourse, we fought the fireworks traffic to make it to this new location to find out that they didn’t have any accommodations there for us, but that they would “upgrade” us to a great room at the All-American Inn 2 miles back up the road for our three nights. When we finally made it to the All-American Motel – getting very tired by this time – we were given a very standard room with 2 beds in it. We complained that we had (already) paid for a room for 6 and were given a room for 4, but there were no other options so we very reluctantly checked in. We hope to get this straightened out and get satisfaction tomorrow.

Yellowstone (Part Three)

On the eve of our last day at Yellowstone, Jon went out to look at the stars one final time. They were as bright as ever!

On Thursday, July 3, Jon got up early in the morning again. It was Katherine's turn to go with him this time, but she opted to stay in bed. (She's the sleepyhead in the family now!) He walked down to the Old Faithful Geyser, but the Visitor Center was still closed and there was no prediction posted for the morning yet. After waiting a short while, maybe 10 or 15 minutes, Old Faithful began acting up, so Jon videotaped this eruption from start to finish (NOT the video below.) Very few people were at the geyser at this hour. This was the fifth time he saw it erupt on this trip.

After that, Jon did 2 loads of laundry. Yes, you read that correctly. Of course, all our whites turned pink, but, hey, you can't have everything! Debbie was busy packing and making sure we had all of our stuff ready to load up in the van. We checked out by 10 a.m. and hit the road for our farewell tour of Yellowstone. Here is what our cabin looked like from the outside (except we weren't always standing right in front of it!)

We started off by driving up the road a few miles to see the Grand Prismatic Spring in the Midway Geyser Basin.

We had been hoping to have a chance to see this one and finally got the opportunity. It's called "prismatic" because of the variety of colors. Living micro-organisms called thermophiles (because they love the heat) are what gives the hot springs their vibrant colors. Blue is the hottest, and you see that in the center of many springs. Then the other colors such as yellow and orange are the organisms that like it a little cooler. Those colors tend to be around the edges.

After the Midway Geyser Basin, we drove to Biscuit Basin and saw several more geysers that put on a good show for us.

Then we drove to Black Sands Basin and yes, you guessed it, saw several more geysers. These geysers are all located within several miles of each other to show you what an active area it is!

And good news: in the parking lot, Jon spotted the Rhode Island license plate - that just leaves Hawaii!

And about Bethany Lewis - we heard later from Tal that she is recovering well and there is no permanent damage to her arm, but it sure was scary for awhile.

We returned to the Old Faithful complex to eat a really good and reasonably priced lunch at the Geyser Grill in the Snow Lodge. Then we walked one of the shorter geyser boardwalk loops right near Old Faithful called "Geyser Hill." Daniel made some crack about it being "Geezer Hill" due to my advanced age. (I think he's still sore about being thrown in the creek!)

We witnessed Old Faithful erupting one last time among a great throng of people around 1:30. We quickly left the area and were determined to leave the Park, but our resolve weakened and we stopped one last time to see the Kepler Cascades.

We did pull off periodically to look at mountains and lakes, but we stayed in the van. We saw an incredible potpourri of waterfalls (some nice-sized, some small, some just a trickle) on the way to the east entrance. We finally took our family picture at a Yellowstone National Park sign as we were leaving at the East Entrance.

We continued heading east through some beautiful country with very interesting-looking rocks and canyons on the way to Cody. Teddy Roosevelt reportedly said this was one of the most scenic areas of the country.

We saw the impressive Cody Dam and went through 3 tunnels before arriving in Cody.

We checked into a very decent room at the Rainbow Park Motel. We drove to the Rodeo Arena and got our tickets for the special "Stampede Rodeo" that evening. Fortunately, the tickets were reserved so we didn't have to worry about arriving early to get good seats.

We ate dinner back in our motel room that we had bought from KFC and Burger King.

Then we went to the Rodeo! Now, this wasn't MY first time at a rodeo, but it was for my family! We tried to get Debbie up on this bull for a picture, but she said, "No way!"

As it was July 3, there was a lot of patriotic elements to the show.

The reviews on the rodeo were mixed. Daniel loved it, especially the bull-riding. Bethany and Katherine enjoyed seeing all the horses and the cowgirls' barrel-racing event. Debbie was prety much horrified and appalled as people were continually getting hurt. I told Daniel to tell her later that evening that he wanted to grow up to be a cowboy in the rodeo, but she wasn't buying it.

We came back to our motel and pretty much collapsed in bed once again from a very full day!

Here are some video shots, if you can get them to work, of a snowball fight, Old Faithful Geyser, and Grotto Geyser. I have one more to add later of the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone, but for right now the blog isn't letting me upload it, so I'll try again tomorrow!

Yellowstone (Part Two)

A hot spring.

This morning, it was Daniel who got up early with me to go exploring. We walked up a steep half-mile trail to Observation Point. We witnessed Old Faithful's eruption at 7:58 a.m. It was a very nice vantage point. We saw a colony of groundhogs (Daniel insists that they were yellow-bellied marmots) living in a pile of rocks.

When the girls woke up, we walked a nearby trail full of geysers. We saw Grand Geyser erupt - it is taller than Old Faithful, but it erupts less frequently. We also saw Daisy Geyser erupt. Daisy is an angled geyser that goes off every few hours.

Daisy Geyser.

We saw many inactive geysers, such as Giant Geyser. It is really big when it erupts (one of the biggest in the Park), but it hasn't erupted since April.

Grotto Geyser.

We were quite impressed with Grotto Geyser as it was a system of three inter-connected geysers, and they were all erupting quite a bit and putting on a good show. We hiked as far as Morning Glory Pool which was a long trail, especially for Katherine. We saw a wolf along the way. We also saw Sawmill Geyser erupt and others from a distance.

Morning Glory Pool.

We bought some lunchmeat and picnic foods at the Hamilton General Store and then drove to a beautiful spot near the Nez Perce River to enjoy a picnic. After our lunch, the kids and Jon went creeking.

The water was cold and the rocks were hard. After Daniel splashed Bethany and made her cry, Jon threw him completely into the creek.

Then we drove through Firehole Canyon Drive and stopped to see beautiful Firehole Falls. We saw lots of buffalo, including ones that were just walking down the street. One of them was a very young calf.

We drove the Virginia Falls loop and saw Virginia Falls. We stopped near Canyon to get out and looked at the Upper Falls.

We then took a hike down a steep path to view the Lower Falls. Jon and Katherine turned around halfway there, but Mom and Bethany went further and Daniel went all the way to the bottom.

We saw a huge herd of buffalo (which we call "tatanka" as Jon learned from "Dances With Wolves") of over 150 grazing near the road. Jon and Daniel stopped to see some sulphur springs (whew!) and a mud volcano.

Mud Volcano.

Dragon's Mouth Spring.

We were supposed to have supper with the Lewis Family, but Bethany Lewis fell in the late afternoon and hurt her arm very badly. She had to be taken to a hospital in Jackson by ambulance. Since Tal may have needed picked up that evening, we cancelled our dinner plans with the other Lewises and drove back to Old Faithful.

We ate supper at the Old Faithful Lodge, arriving just as Old Faithful was erupting again. Mom and the girls did some shopping while Daniel and Dad checked out other eruption predictions at the Visitor Center. Bethany and Katherine each bought a gray wolf stuffed animal and named them Dawn and Rose.

While we waited to hear back from Tal, we went to Castle Geyser and saw it erupt at 8:35 (prediction was between 7:30 and 9:30). Thus we witnessed eruptions of five of the six geysers that are predicted: Old Faithful, Great Fountain, Grand, Daisy, and Castle. We only didn't catch Riverside. It was never going off at a doable time for us.

Then the whole family went and did more shopping in the Hamilton General Store. We saw another wolf or coyote. We came home to our cozy cabin and wrote postcards, watched TV, and prepared for our last day in Yellowstone. We heard back from Tal that Bethany Lewis needed surgery and was to stay in the hospital overnight, so Jon was not able to go pick them up. We settled in for our last night at Yellowstone.

P.S. Here is an update to our license plate game. By the time we arrived in Yellowstone, we only needed to spot four more plates! Jon saw Massachusetts and Debbie found Alaska, so now that just leaves us with Rhode Island and Hawaii!