Day 8

To Yellowstone

Breakfast was at 8:00am (yikes!) and the table was most beautifully set out. We enjoyed juices, jams, coffee, a dish of melon and a big plate of Swedish pancakes and fluffy omelettes on ham. We are accompanied by a couple from Canada, who were very friendly. The bloke was originally from Liverpool and was an Everton fan!! Fancy travelling halfway around the world and meeting another Everton fan!! There was some chatting about Bush and Brady's convictions that many who complained about him would've done better for the country had they voted!! He (Bush) is NOT a very popular man anywhere, it seems! Anyway congenial company though it was, we had to get ready to move on.

The open road (Interstate 90!) stretched out before us! We stopped soon after we started, at some place to phone Dad to ask how England were getting on. They were playing Portugal. It seems as though Rooney had been sent off (there's a surprise!) and they were about to go into extra time. Back to the road, we passed Butte and Bozeman, before finally finding out (via the radio) that England were out of the tournament, having lost on pens. Brazil were also out!! The French were, unfortunately, still in - but you can't have everything in this world. We turned off onto the Yellowstone road.

(where the pay phone was!)

We stopped down by the Yellowstone River, where it was very hot indeed. But how beautiful it was!

Soon we were in the little town of Gardiner, where we had a quick look around the (westernised) shops, before entering Yellowstone National Park through the north entrance and under the Roosevelt Arch. It was becoming very dark and thundery, which only added menace to the already spookiness of entering the park and realising we were actually on top of a ginormous caldera!! We stopped at Mammoth Hot Springs, where there were elk (or were they deer?) happily grazing on the grass. The hot springs were WEIRD!

"

We stopped long enough for a few photos, but the sky was threatening to open any minute, so we drove off and next stopped at Norris Geyser Basin, where, fortunately, the sky was still bright. WOW! What a fabulous place! We walked around the boardwalk and took in the incredible site before us - and the smell!

(More and BIGGER photos of Norris Geyser Basin can be found here.)

Later, we saw a coyote strolling along the road! (I'm not certain that it wasn't a wolf!)

To the Old Faithful Snow Lodge at the Old Faithful area. We checked in - very efficient woman! Our room was very nice and on the ground floor, so that was useful! We firstly went to the cafeteria to get some sandwiches (which turned out to be gross), cos we were starving - and then, as the next 'show' was imminent, we walked over to Old Faithful and sat down on the benches there. There was a chipmunk playing in the grass!! Finally up whooshed the geyser, amid much oohing and aahing! Certainly was a pretty impressive sight.

We then went into the shops and bought a couple of things (I don't remember what) and then, hot and tired, we went back to our room. No telly, so we had to amuse ourselves by writing postcards; that sort of thing! There were blasted mozzies everywhere!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



[ Introduction ] [ Day 1 ] [ Day 2 ] [ Day 3 ] [ Day 4 ] [ Day 5 ] [ Day 6 ] [ Day 7 ] [ Day 8 ] [ Day 9 ]
[ Day 10 ] [ Day 11 ] [ Day 12 ] [ Day 13 ] [ Day 14 ] [ Day 15 ] [ Day 16 ] [ Day 17 ]
[ Day 18 ] [ Day 19 ] [ Day 20 ] [ Day 21 ]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~