Day 9 (continued) - We ate at the Egg and I after walking around the town of Cheyenne and asking a local where to eat, then took in the Nelson Cowboy Museum - there were some fantastic exhibits in this nice little museum and very economical enterence fee (the kids were free). Then we hit the road for our drive home and took a stab at finding a campsite at the Buffalo Bill SRA on a Sat. night without a reservation. When we pulled in we were one of 3 campers and we were pleasently surprised that the campsites had electric hookups with a cost of only $11 for the night. In the spring and fall this is a migratory stopping area for the Sand Hill Cranes (we saw cattle). So we grilled some beans and cheese brats with cresent rolls wrapped around them for easy finger eating and crashed for the evening.

Day 10 - We visited the home of Buffalo Bill and the Scout Ranch Museum in the morning and we were plesently surprised to get free admission because we camped at the adjacent campground, also a curator of the museum saw our trailer the night before and she is a Sister on the Fly with a tricked out Buffalo Bill theame vintage Field and Stream trailer. This was a great little gem of a place that we happened on by pure luck. We hit I80 to make some distance (after visiting the local Goodwill) and got all the way to Adain before we decided to call it a night and find a campground with a pool for the kids (the local KOA), this was our hottest camping day with temps in the 90's and we all took advantage of the pool, although it looked like a big cement pond, due to some algea issues that the camp host was tackeling with various chemicals (after the pool closing hours). We were packed in like sardines, with big rigs on either side of us, without any shade trees ---- but we did not care because we knew we would be home sometime the next day - so we drank some wine (cause we ran out of Vodka) ate the last of the hotdogs on hamburger buns (caus the camp store sold the last of the hot dog buns just a minute before we got there) and the leftover snacks from previous fine dinning and then crashed for the night watching a Cinderella cartoon DVD with the kids.

Day 11 - I woke up to rain on the trailer roof around 6:30 and could not get back to sleep ---- so I woke up John and the kids and we packed up in the rain and headed for home. Had a quick breakfast at McDonalds outside of DesMoins and we rolled into Woodstock around 2:00 ----- It was a fantastic vacation!!!!!

Day 5,6,7 (Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday) We camped at a smaller campground called Lizard Lake in the Grand Teatons just outside the south enterence of Yellowstone. This is dry camping, so no electricity (but they did have flushing toilets ----yeahhhhh). We got a beautiful site nestled between alot of tent campers (we could stay in the most beautiful area due to Bee Bee being only 16' over the bigger rigs - in this case small size does matter). On Monday, we visited the West Thumb Geyser Basin in Yellowstone on our wayin from Cody, the hot sulfer steam and bubbling clear blue pools of boiling water were out of this world - it really is amazing. We set up camp and had the last of the Cassarole meals that I packed - Lasagna, with a bag of salad and ranch dressing that we picked up on the road, then we all hopped into bed. On Tuesday, we had a lazy morning, I made oatmeal and everyone enjoyed the hot meal (except Gabby - who was threatened with the take away of her Twilight book and no more EDWARD, before she ate her required 1/2 of the bowl), then we loaded into the truck and went to see Old Faithful, the area was packed and I got a great parking spot by luck, right by Old Faithful, we were all held back from the viewing area due to 2 buffalo eating close to the viewing boardwalk (got some great pics) and when they finally mosied away we wound up with front row bench seats for the big show (but had to wait a whole 15 mins. - which was tourture for the kids - Alex had to have his Transformer taken away for the rest of the day because he said a "bad" word in his excitement to see the big show), when she erupted it was spectacular, the mist hit all of us in a fine spreay and the height of the eruptions was amazing. We then went for a walk around Old Faithful and saw more beautiful smaller and very colorful gysers throughout the area; we then drove to the Paint Pots of Yellowstone about 20 mins. from Old Faithful and saw boiling milky bowls of hot minerals that were very neat too. When we got back to camp, I took the kids for a walk (and we saw a fox) along the black sand beach of Lizard Lake and they had a blast making sand castles (John was not feeling great so he stayed behind and got a much needed rest and good nights sleep), the kids and I downed some cheese brots and Pringles for dinner and hit the hay too. Wednesday, we drove to Jenny Lake in the Grand Teatons and took a shuttle boat to the other side of the lake to do a little hiking, we had planned on doing a 2 mile hike to see Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point and wound up doing about 6 miles into Cascade Canyon in search of seeing a Moose that was saposta be just 20 min. down the trail - which wound up to be a nice 4 hour hike. On the way up Gabby was not the happy camper climbing up the hill and comming back I was the last in line and not the happy camper with all the steps down. But we were rewarded by seeing a big bull moose lying down and a baby moose walking in a meadow and right before we got back to the shuttle boat, we saw another huge Bull Moose about 15 yards away from us eating some of the Trail edge Tree Leaves (I got a great pic). My hiking savior was a hiking stick that I bought as a last thought because Gabby must visit every gift shop we see and I finaly buckeled in and got a hat, t-shirt and the wonderful, magnificant, life saving walking stick. We also had some great views of the mountains, waterfalls, and the panaramic overview of Jenny Lake. We also saw a little Piker and John saw a marmacet (I saw the tail). We ended the day with a picnik dinner by Jackson Lake, then we headed back to the campsite for a campfire, coctails and the making of S'mores; while roasting the Marshmellos for the S'mores, we had a visitor a small Grizzly Bear walked by our campsite and John and I watched him closly to make sure he did not turn our way (with marshmallows and chocolate in our hands) luckily he took one look and us and continued on his way toward the beach ----- it was a very neat experiance and glad it was very uneventful.

Day 8 - Thursday, we packed up early and flopped the kids in the Truck, while we hooked up and were on the road by 7:30 towards our destination of the day, Terry Bison Ranch in Chyanne Wyoming. We drove through some of the prettiest Red Rock formations and saw boatloads of free range cattle mixed with antalope on our way. Once we got to the campground after 9.5 hours, we kept her hitched up and just stabalized to get dinner going - brats and bake beans. After we ate we all enjoyed a hot shower then John and the kids watched a Cinderrella DVD while I played freecell and hearts.

Day 9 - Friday, we are planning on visiting the Cowboy museum in Chyanne and then find a place in Nebraska to camp for the night.

Day 6 - It is the morning after the 4th of July and I am again on WIFI while John and the kids are sleeping. We are now at Abroska Bay Campground (packed in like Sardines with the big rigs (gald it was only for one night), today we will explore the town of Cody Wyoming and settle into our 3 day campsite in Yellowsone NP. On the 2nd of July, we saw Mount Rushmore (phenominal), drove by Crazy Horse and took the wildlife loop of Custer State Park --- we saw cute little Prarie Dogs, 2 adult antelope with 2 little babies, about a dozen wild burros that stuck their heads into the car when you rolled down your window, adult and baby deer (with the spots on them), and a herd of buffalo off into the distance of the vast prarie grass, Western Meadowlarks, Robins, Turkey Vultures and mountain goats, when we got back John tossed my Lasagna cassaroll on the grill and we all chowed down. On July 3, we had a lazy morning and made a big camp breakfast of eggs and toast and John cooked up some left over camp burgers, then we hit the trail to see the sites from the senic and windy mountain turns of Highway 16A. Right off the bat we were thrilled to see a huge Buffalo only 4 feet away from us munching on the side of the road grass (we got some great pictures from our rolled down window). John tackled the pigtail curves and shear drop offs like a champ (he has a little phobia about this and did well), we stopped in Keystone, SD for our purchase of rock souvaners and went to a little museum that had a great history on the artest, Burgram Gutson, that made Mount Rushmore (he started it when he was 60), this was a great self tour and we all enjoyed the airconditioning, we then drove on and had some great views of Mount Rushmore from a distance that were awsome, back at camp we tossed another casserole on to the grill that I made from an internet camp reciept and it was fantastic, tasted just like Chicken Pot Pie without the crust. July 4th we started early for a long drive to Cody, I drove through some strong rain and we stopped in Gilette for some Breakfast (had to bypass the local Perkins - caus it was a half hour wait and ate at Wendys --- not my favorate camp meal), we loved the fantastic views in Big Horn National Park, John was glad I drove the camper up and down the mountain sides through the hairpin and windy curves, sometimes gravel roads due to construction - I must admit when we settled into the camp cram-them-in site at Abroska Bay, I enjoyed my first coctail emensely. Now we will be spending 3 days in Yellowstone and I am pretty sure they will not have WIFI there, so I will have to update when we get out of the park.

June 30, 2010 - Day 1 of the Yellowstone journey. John and I and the kids got started a day earlier than planned and hit the road around 1:30 on Wednesday. We drove up to Austin Minnesota and pulled off at the "blue" campground sign off of I90 and were treated to a Jellystone campground, complete with pool - which was great for the kids. We ploped on the first of several tinfoil meals "frozen hamburger/potato/onion/carrot" individual bricks. Once we set up, I made a pitcher of vodka/sprites and John tossed the bricks on the porta-weber, we had a great time watching the kids tire themselves out at the pool and the petting zoo.



July 1, 2010 - Day 2, we were on the road by 6:30 (helps when you hit the sack at 9pm) for a long drive. We took some pictures of our Jellystone campground and then broke up the drive with a visit and lunch in Mitchel to see the Corn Palace and ice cream at Walls Drugs, took pictures at both of these places with the kids and boy did they smack of tourist traps. I forgot to bring my camara memory card/battery --- so will have to post pictures later from John's camera. We arrived in Custer South Dakota around 6 at Big Pine Campground (close to Mt Rushmore, and Crazy Horse, set up and tossed a Tatertot cassarole on the trusty porta-weber. We drove through a nice thunderstorm and thankfully god was smiling on us, because when it came time to set up, the rain stopped.



July 2, 2010 - Day 3, it is the morning and I am sitting on the camp office porch because they have WIFI but only by the office. John and Alex are sleeping it is 9 am and Gabby and I are playing with our respective WIFI electronics. We are planning on seeing Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Custer State Park today. Signing off for now --- John is making eggs for breakfast.

THINGS WE SAW

Animals included Prarie Dogs, Moose, Grizzle Bear, Mountain Goat, Bison, Elk, Fox, Antalope, Wild Burro, Wild Horses, Pika, Coyote, and many western birds.

1. The Corn Palace, Mitchell, SD
2. Mt. Rushmore, SD
3. Custer State Park - Wild Life Loop & Needles, SD
4. Wall Drug, SD
5. Irma Hotel, Cody, WY
6. Old Faithful, North Loop Geyser Basin, Paint Pots, Yellowstone N.P.
7. Inspiration Point, Little Jenny Lake, Grand Teton Mtn's
8. Nelson Cowboy Museum & Terry Bison Ranch, Cheyenne, WY
9. Scout Ranch Museum and Buffalo Bill's Home, North Platt, NE