What doesn't happen on a vacation trip
It never ceases to amaze me how wonderful Gods nature
is. Our vacation started on a Sunday and returned the following Monday
night at midnight.
Maybe I should say our trip started
Saturday night because it took us 4 hours just to load the SUV with all
our stuff. We are tent campers and need to not only bring
along clothing but cooking, tent, and bedding
stuff. This took up allot of room, but we took
this into account and ensured that the SUV we reserved had a luggage rack
on it. When it came time to pick the rental up, it was
not available. First the rental company attempted to ask if we
wanted to pay more for a SUV that was larger and available right
then. We told them no we would wait for the other one to be
ready. A few moments later we are given the upgrade
of a larger SUV for free. There was only one drawback.. No luggage rack! But
it's larger no problem...
As we started to pack up the SUV
we realized that there would be no way we could get it all in the
back. So we did what any other country folk would do and got a
Clampett luggage rack. This included several items to work
correctly. Rop, rope, rope and well more
rope. Once we put it together (the Clampett luggage rack
did not come with a manual), we started loading it up with several
items. I wonder what everyone thought of this monasteries two
foot tall three foot long green thing on top of a 2010 Ford
Flex. Now that's class...
We got all packed up and ready to go the next morning.
The first days ride went very well. We
stopped about 3 hours outside of Mt. Rushmore and spent the night at a
super 8 motel. Not that bad of a stay. In and out
the next morning we got back on the road.
We where then greeted
by one of our ancestors walking his pet by interstate 90 towards Mt.
Rushmore.
We
started to come upon all these little signs on the side of the
road. Stating about Prairie dog and "the largest Prairie dog
ever" something like 80 tons. Man we
had to see this...
They
had several little ones (about a hundred) running all over the
place. They sold food for us to feed them with.
After
all our other stops we finally got to Mt. Rushmore and it was
fantastic! There is allot to learn there and several things to
see.
As
you can tell it was very bright that day. We went on a nice
hike up near the base of the mount . If you are traveling thru the area defiantly
drop by and see!
As we were heading out for Yellowstone we
came by this little town that had a sign on one of the buildings that stated
they were in the world records for having the most Teddy
Bars. And they had allot of bears! Over 6
thousand bars. WOW!
Around
3:00 we moved on for Yellowstone.
Stopped
at another Super 8 motel for the night and then drove over the Rockies
Tuesday morning. We found many beautiful places to stop and look
around. We got to Yellowstone around 7:00pm and set up camp.
We
were told about Bears over and over and not to leave any food out and
don't keep anything in the tent (food that is). More about
that later..
We spent a 5 days there and
saw old faithful, hot springs, and many other items of interest.
Here are just some of the things we enjoyed
.
( Behive Guiser)
(Old Faithful Guiser)
One interesting thing
about Yellowstone is the Camp Rangers are so nice. So nice that they place Very Large signs explaining
how every year so many people are gored by Bison. And how we
need to make sure we stay away from them. Well
there is this one walk that we went on. It was a paved path, and a
bridge/walkway across some water. We noticed up ahead there
where allot of people on this walkway stopped. In Yellowstone
whenever you see people stopped it's because there is some wild animal
there. Guess what! It was a large Bison taking his time
eating grass and walking across the path. If you notice
in this picture there is NO one else on the path.
After
waiting some time and everyone moving back he made his way closer and
closer to the walkway.
Now
you see he is on the other side of the trail. Trust me Katrina
and myself where a ways back when we took this picture. Not only
that there was a hot spring right between us and the
bison.
Looks
like the last person didn't do so well.
:-) (see the bones in the lower left side of
this picture) Well finally the Bison moved on and we could all go past
without any fear.
We
also saw a mother grizzly Bear and her cubs in some water eating a carcass.
I'm very glad for zoom on cameras. I would not want to be this
close to them. If you look close you will see three
cubs. Two in front and are behind the cub that is closest to
the mom.
During our stay we had to move camp sites from
one camp ground to another. The morning after our first
night at our new camp ground we hard a story from one of the rangers about
our old camp site and how someone had pored left over grease on the
ground. I guess they did not believe in the Bear stories
and did not read the sign that was on the picnic table, bar box, rest
room, receipt for the campground, 5 minuet lecture the camp ground staff
gave everyone, or the 6 x 6 foot sign at the entrance to the camp ground
that (all) stated there are bears in the area and don't leave any trash,
food, or toiletry items laying round. I feel really bad for
the all the campers that where there because all tent campers had to sleep
in there cars that night and where evacuated the next morning for two days
it was closed to tent campers.
Over
all the weather was nice. It did rain the first two nights and
was a bit of a mess but the last few nights where dry but
cold. It got down into the 30s at night. And
highs where in the 70s. The high altitude got to us after awhile
and we both got sick, but we enjoyed the trip anyway.
We
decided to pack up the Clampett-mobile and head on out.
We headed out Sunday morning around 10:00. We grabbed some more pictures on the way out, on the left
is Andrew my wife's younger brother. And Gene my father-in-law.
We drove through the Grand Teton
national forest on the way out and saw some wonderful views of the moutons.
After
leaving the park the first stop was taco bell. Finally a change
from camp food.
After a quick bite to eat we drove and drove on highway 80 onward to
home. Knowing we could not make it home in one day we got
out the next best thing to a GPS system and that's a MAP
system. Looked it all over and found where we needed to spend
the night. Then I had to get technical. I got out
my laptop, and cell phone in hand and connected cables here and
there. Got on the internet and hotel sites over and
over. Finally found a place to stay that was low price (stay
within our budget) to spend the night. The drawback was we
never heard of the place. And a word from the now
wise... Don't stay in a hotel unless you recognize the name of the
place!
See we were looking for another Super 8 but the one
I found was sold out. So I found some place called
America's Best something.... Anyway it was far from
it. Keep in mind this Sunday night is the 4th of
July. And we saw fireworks for miles as we had been
driving. We were getting in late around 11:00pm and noticed
as we were getting off the highway that there were fireworks everywhere
in people's back yards and, in fields. Well not thinking
much about it we pulled into the parking lot of the hotel and low and
behold the place was covered with fireworks. Everyone and
there brother was there shooting off fireworks and having a
party. My hart sunk... Hoping and praying the room
and hotel staff was better. Walked in and found no one at the
counter of the hotel. Looking around I see this guy from outside
(who was shooting off fireworks) came in and went behind the counter to
set us up with our room. Man this can't get
worse... Well after a bit of credit card swiping and signing
papers he handed me the room key card and told me down the hall and to the
left.
On we went to check out our
room in this America's Best hotel place. Opened the door
and walked in.. Flipped on the light switch and nothing happened.
Looked around and there was nothing on the bed. No lights no
nothing. O man this is really getting bad
now. Back to the front. Get the guy to come back
in from his firework party and correct the problem.
"O sorry, sorry I must have given you the wrong room" he told us
as he quickly made new room keys and told us to go to another room.
Well
we went this time and it wasn't all that bad. (I
guess) We had a good sleep and woke up in the morning ready to
hit the road for a long drive home.
That next day we headed
out and dropped by to eat lunch with some of my relatives in Lincoln
Nebraska. After this stop we kept on rolling to our house in
Oblong Illinois. We got back home at midnight Monday night.
Our Clampett mobile amazingly made it safely only suffering a broken
windshield. After all I'm sure
glad we didn't take our own car.
Hope you all
enjoyed reading about our summer vacation.
Bobby and
Katrina Gage