The first place I checked said it would be at least two weeks, but the second place did the job in 4 and a half days and on Memorial Day, we left Denton and arrived in Amarillo, where the wind blows constantly and hard, like it did all winter in Harlingen.
The next day we arrived in Denver where we did some "touristy" things; like take a tour of the Coors Brewery. Jane and I both like to watch the show "How It's Made" especially when they show manufacturing businesses with lots of automation. The Coors Co. did not disappoint.
We also toured the train museum
and the Red Rocks Amphitheatre.
Also toured the Denver mint, but they don't allow pictures. Two armed guards followed along as we took the guided tour to make sure no one lagged behind to try to nab some "samples".
We had a lovely dinner with our nephew Zach and his wife Katie at their home and then moved on to Cheyenne where we had reservations for 6 nights.
They gave us the "boot", so we moved on after 4 nights because we had done everything there is to do in Cheyenne in one day.
We spent one night in Green River, WY, where I stopped to say hi to a guy who runs a towing company there. I had met him at a trade show back in the early 90s and had seen him every year since. He would attend at least two and sometimes 3 trade shows a year.
The next day we arrived in Irwin, ID, about an hour's drive from Jackson, WY. Even though the name, Buck's Gas and RV didn't sound like it would be a great RV park, it turned out to be very nice.
License plates in Idaho have the inscription "Scenic Idaho" across the top and it is really beautiful.
And we had a very nice couple camped next to us. Sonny and I had some nice conversations and enjoyed talking to each other. He and his wife, Kay, had a new motorhome and were having some problems with it (no surprise there) which led to more conversations but Sonny was keeping a good attitude which is crucial when dealing with all the things that go wrong with new RVs.
We spent a day in Jackson
Each corner of the square, had an arch built from antlers
Each year the elk shed their antlers (and grow new ones in the spring) and there are so many, the boys scouts gather them up and sell them as a fund raiser. Some of them are sold to people who believe the antlers have medicinal value.
We were about 40 miles east of Idaho Falls, so we took a day and went there to see the falls and because they have the closest Walmart.
I think Jane was getting a little too comfortable with the local park bear.
We read that there aren't many bears left at Yellowstone, but they have a place outside Idaho Falls called Bear World where they have many animals living in the "wild" and you can drive through the park. So we did
And we did see lots of bears. All of them had either been rescued or had been born there at the preserve.
And moose
And buffalo...it was June but he was still shedding his winter coat. Kinda scruffy looking.
And dancing baby bears
When we realized how far we were from Yellowstone and how long we would be driving every day just to get there and back, we decided to get a hotel room for two nights in West Yellowstone. We were glad we did, because we would not have seen half the park had we stayed in Idaho every night.
We saw buffalo grazing, sometimes as many as 20 or 30.
We saw the snake river up close from several different vantage points.
The upper falls make so much spray there is a constant rainbow on sunny days.
There were many hot springs with water ranging from 160 to 180 degrees. The Sulphur smell was not pleasant and many people viewed the springs while holding their noses.
My most frequent comment was, "Oh wow, look at that!"
We saw this grey wolf running along about 50 feet from the road. For awhile there were no wolfs at Yellowstone and it reeked havoc with the ecosystem ranging from too many elk to not enough beavers in a trickle down effect. Several years ago ten mating pairs were introduced to the park and things are now getting back to normal.
And of course, no trip to Yellowstone would be complete without seeing Old Faithful. We spent three days seeing Yellowstone. This was the third day and our last stop in the park.
We passed by the Teton Range on the way to Yellowstone.
On the way back, we stopped to see Lake Jackson.
That boat in the foreground has wakeboards on it. I hope they have wetsuits.
We made it to Rapid City, SD where we saw a pretty sunset and . . .
. . . some president heads.
Then, we went to Badlands National Park where rolling grassland suddenly turns into rock formations that seem to spring up for no apparent reason.
This is also in Badlands where a lone buffalo was grazing at sunset. There was a herd on the other side of the road, but this guy seemed to like the solitude and having all this grass for himself.
After a month of traveling and sight-seeing we settled down at our camp site in Arkansas to spend two months of quality lake time.
We'll be here until after Labor Day and then back to Texas in Sept.
