Day 11 - Here Moosey moosey...

Day 11 Yellowstone

Grand Teton NP - Yellowstone NP

Drove around all day stopping at various thermal features and animals sightings.

  

Realization of the day:  Yellowstone is huge and full of turnoffs of all sorts

Realization #2:  It is overwhelming to try to figure out what to do if you only want to spend 1.5 days in Yellowstone.

Realization #3:  This feeling of being overwhelmed is multiplied by lack of internet to research the sights you’d most like to see.

Solution:  Visit gift shop and purchase a cool mug and a bumper sticker and just keep on driving

Problem of the day:  Everyone else decided to camp in Yellowstone tonight, too.  Had to drive out of park and stay at a spot that only allows hard sided vehicles...no tents, no pop-ups...due to grizzly bear activity.  I’ll believe it when I see it.  

If had a photo of an animal in the roadway for every sign that said, “Caution:  Animal in Roadway” I’d have a lot of photos.  So far I’ve seen one deer cross the roadway.  I think they paid him just to make the signs not a total lie.  

Deep thought of the day:  “There are not enough warning signs in the world to account for stupid.”  After reading a huge sign about the importance of staying on the walkway at the thermal features, including statistics of people who have been burned to death in their acidic grips, I still saw people hopping off the boardwalk for photo ops, touching the ground to see if it was really hot and sticking their hand in the streams of boiling water.  Most of these actions sent the ranger on duty into a complete state of panic as she ran toward the people screaming.  I say there’s a lot to be said for survival of the fittest.  Let’s take down the signs and just let common sense be our guide.  

Day 10 - The day the mighty moose continued to elude me

Day 10

Lusk, WY - Grand Teton National Park (last possible campground before hitting Yellowstone)

Driving Time:  10 hours...including 2 hour drive through park

Found a great coffee shop in Lusk for a bagel and tea.  Successfully dodged a deer wandering into town and a pick-up adorned with Sarah Palin bumper stickers.  Considered myself off to a good start.  You might be small town if...funeral home notices are hung in the window of your only grocery store so people know when calling hours are.  Although earlier in the day I passed through Lost Springs pop. 4, so I guess Lusk is    kind of a big city with 844.  Continued on with a long drive.  Stopped at a Wyoming Audubon spot and found some new birds and got a lesson on poisonous snakes from a local couple walking two cute dogs that apparently eat salad.  It’s funny where conversations go.  Then a drive through the Tetons as the sun went down.  Beautiful.  Bison, deer, elk...no moose.  

Best name seen for lodging:  C’mon Inn

Range in gas price during this drive:  $3.32 to $4.09  Supply and demand...who knew there were oil wells in Wyoming?

Biggest benefit in small town America:  gas stations sell everything

Day 9 - More Prairie Dogs and Bison

Day 9
Badlands National Park, SD - Lusk, Wyoming
Travel Time:  3 hours
Visited:  Badlands NP - Wall, SD, Mt. Rushmore NP, Custer State Park
Highlight:  Herd of buffalo walking past car about 3 feet away

Tomorrow is a travel day.  Seven hours to Grand Teton and Yellowstone.  Looking forward to a shower...although I won't be touching anything in the bathroom.  Tonight I'm camping in a place with two RV's that people live in, rabbits and a raccoon.  

Day 8 - The day I didn't get arrested and fell in love with prairie dogs.

Day 8
Valentine, NE - Badlands National Park, SD
2 hrs + time driving around 2 parks
Total miles driven:  2,383.4
Highlights of day:  Feeding peanuts to prairie dogs, watching the sunset over the formations at Badlands...oh, and not getting arrested.

So, to kick off my police involvement I was pulled over in the booming town of Valentine, NE last night after driving for 9.5 hours...because I didn't have my headlights on.  Ugh.  Find license, find registration, wait with bright light shining in eyes...police returns and asks what's in the baggie in my front seat.  Oh, you mean my drug stash?!?  Just my teabags.  He did, in the end, recommend a hotel to stay at.  That was just my warming up.  So, on Monday I saw this hand in a canal:

I thought, what a great gag...someone put a fake hand in this canal.  On Tuesday a friend of mine said she thought the hand was real and I maybe should call the cops.  Well, I had already started having my doubts, but really...who finds a dead body on a random canal stop on vacation?  It kept nagging at the back of my mind though, so today I figured out where I took the photo and called the sheriff.  Kind of Dukes of Hazzard like.  I thought what a fabulous concerned citizen I was...until I got called back 4 times with questions about why I hadn't called sooner, if anyone had seen the hand with me, if I noticed anyone else in the area, how close had I gotten to the hand, what was the exact time of the photo, had I seen a body and why did I have a close up photo?  Suddenly, past CSI episodes started flashing through my head.  Was I a suspect now?  What are the laws on reporting a random hand you think is fake to the police.  My last call ended with the sheriff and crew at the canal checking into things.  Panic attack ensued.  I wondered what jail in small town Indiana might be like.  How would I get my Element back to MA?  Could I hide out in a cave in the Badlands?  After an hour of playing worst case scenario I called back to check.  The nice lady Joyce was gone.  What is your name and what is your business in calling was the response when I asked for her.  Gulp...I'm the person that called about the hand?  It was fake.  We had a shift change and got busy so we couldn't call you back.  Phew?!?  So, I guess I'll be traveling a few more days after all.  Tonight I am camping inside Badlands National Park.  It is amazingly beautiful and so far there haven't been any suspicious hands.

Day 7 - More Corn

Day 7
Cedar Falls, IA - Valentine, NE
9.5 hours of corn, soybeans & cows

Fun Facts:
* Rick and Terry Kottman are great hosts!  I recommend that everyone visit at least once in their lifetime.
* The size of one's ankles seems to run in direct proportion to the number of hours driven x temperature squared
* The USA grows crazy amounts of corn and soybeans
* Dairy Queen has a new mini size blizzard
* The midwest is just as barren as you've heard and there's more corn than you can imagine
* The Missouri River is flooded, don't plan on taking Route 29 as a scenic birding route
* It is impossible to keep a windshield bug free in Nebraska
* Try having your headlights on after dark if you don't want to get pulled over by the Valentine, NE police department
*  Heat index yesterday - 115 degrees
*  Heat index today - 106
* I know now that there must be air conditioning in heaven

Not fun facts:
* I witnessed my first cattle feed lot today.  It smelled like raw sewage with cows packed in like sardines, no room to move, no grass to eat and no shelter on a day that was 106 degrees.  Please eat meat responsibly...know where your meat comes from.
* A bird hit my windshield
* I got a sad animal chicken sandwich today when I ordered a Filet-O-Fish at McDonald's

The Mighty Mississippi & Yoga

Day 6
Brimfield, IL - Cedar Falls, IA
5ish hours with detours

Woke up in Jubilee Camp State Park thankful the raccoons from the night before didn't carry me off.  I was convinced on several occasions that the car was moving ever so slightly...but it may have just been the torrents of sweat pouring off me and dripping down to the floorboards of the car causing the shaking.  :-)  After a brief detour to the birthplace of Carl Sandburg it was off to the Mississippi.  Dipped my toes in while dodging a barking dog and no trespassing signs.  Apparently the people of Iowa want the riverbank all to themselves.  Arrived at Terry & Rick's place.  Ahh.  An oasis.  Throw in some restorative yoga, an ice cream cone and fabulous conversations and you can call it a day.  I wonder how many cornfields I'll see tomorrow?  Feel free to take guesses and I'll have some fun prize for whoever comes closest.  :-)  Next destination...Mount Rushmore.

The day with a Segway

Day 5

Cincinnati, OH - Brimfield, IL

6 hours travel time + 1 hour on a Segway

2 swollen ankles from too much driving

4 states passed through today

100 corn fields per state passed through

21 public bathroom used since start of trip

1,000+ miles driven

5 raccoons spotted near the dumpster

2 deer crossed my path as I drove to tent site

Location Information

Eureka, IL  The college home of Ronald Reagan

Kickapoo Creek, IL - no swimming allowed

Farmer City, IL - wins award for most oxymoronic city passed

Learned that the ship that delivered the bombs to be dropped on Japan was hit and sunk by two torpedos on its journey home.  800 of the 1,192 men made it off the vessel.  Because it was a secret mission, it took 5 days for help to arrive.  Only 300 men made it to safety.  (Or so my Segway guide said.)  She also said a wildflower garden looked like weeds to her, so I don't give too much credence to her information.

Learned that salad can be a finger food.

Odd sightings

Sign in campground bathroom:  In case of emergency use phone at gas station 4 miles away.

A crop duster buzzing cars on the highway

A black leather whip in the middle of an off ramp

A hand sticking out of the canal I visited that I thought was fake, and now, that I've looked at the photo more closely, am not sure

Today's highlight:  Viewing hundreds of fireflies lighting up over a field at dusk.