NEW TRAVEL BUDDY

We arrived back in Las Vegas last Tuesday (Sept 11th) a little ahead of schedule.  There were a couple of reasons for that.  Could not meet up with sister Kris in Heber City so we cut out the extra day there.  We also learned that there was a NASCAR event starting on the 13th and traffic on I-15 during NASCAR can get pretty crazy so coming in two days ahead instead of one made sense.

While Arlyene was in LV for three weeks in August she ended up adopting a kitten that her brother and sister-in-law were fostering until her and her sister were old enough to be adopted.  Arlyene fell in love with "Peanut" and her personality and could not resist her.  Mike and Kimberly took care of her until we got back.  We picked Peanut up the same afternoon we arrived and she has settled in nicely here in the coach.  We, on the other hand, are learning to "cat proof" the coach much as we would have to make it safe from a 2 year old human.  Peanut is into everything and a real dynamo.  She eventually wears herself out (along with us) and then sleeps to store up more energy for her text terror attack.  She is a ball of laughs.  I started the engine up a couple days ago and she did not react so I am hoping she will make a good traveling companion.

So......heeeeeeeere's Peanut.

She still has her kitten fur but is developing some really interesting colors and markings.

So, we are back in Las Vegas for the winter now.  There will not be much to report in the way of travel although we do have plans for a trip in March which will no doubt result in some posting here.  More on that closer to that time.

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK

We arrived in West Yellowstone on schedule and spent the day cleaning and waiting for sister Sandy and husband Ken to arrive the next day.  I spent some time cleaning up the front of the coach which looked like it had a bad case of acne.  

Not the worst it has ever been for sure but bad enough to need cleaning.

It takes about three days to really see the park and we only had two so we had to pick the areas that would be best for Sandy and Ken to see.  Sandy had never been and Ken was here once many years ago.  Based on our trip here five years ago we chose to do Old Faithful and points in between on day one and then head for the Lamar Valley on day two.  Here are a few highlights of day one.

Many, many geysers and pools along the route to Old Faithful.

Colorful......

....and active.

This was about 20 feet high after venting for who knows how long. 

Lots of folks anticipating Old Faithful

Including the four of us.

Not much here to get the scale of the eruption but it was impressive.

Yellowstone is a massive volcano.  Here we are standing on one side of the caldera.  The other side, off in the distance, is 32 miles away.

Elevation from the edge of the caldera.

On the way to Lamar Valley

The Lamar Valley is where we saw the most wildlife on our last trip here.  But seeing wildlife is kind of like hunting or fishing.  Sometimes you "catch" something and sometimes you don't so there are no guarantees with one possible exception....you can almost always see bison and we certainly saw plenty of them.

I used my telephoto lens to get this (somewhat overexposed) picture but I was still pretty close and when he started eyeing me suspiciously I decided to make my exit.  This was a lone animal on the side of the road in a forested area. 

Antalope

 After Lamar Valley, on our way out of the park on day two, we spotted some moose on the other side of the river.

I was going to, sadly, say that we did not see any bears but that is not exactly true.  In fact, we are bringing one home with us for our new Kitty, Peanut who is not much bigger.

ON THE MOVE

Nice dinner with Larry and Linda a coupe nights before our departure.

So we are on the move towards the south with some delays along the way.  We left Sagle on Saturday, September 1st.  Yup! right at the beginning of the Labor Day weekend.  WHAT WAS I THINKING?  After a very "hairy" experience with a blocked freeway on ramp and a forced reroute through narrow streets in Coeur d' Alene we finally made it onto I-90 eastbound.  Next came multiple road construction zones, one with about a 4 - 5 mile back up while all the holiday traffic squeezed into one lane.  Like I said, "What was I thinking"?  Anyway we eventually got through the constructions zones and over Lookout Pass and worked our way to the town of Wye, MT just west of Missoula where we parked for the night Saturday.  The next day, Sunday, we had a very pleasant and trouble free drive to Dillon, MT where we are currently located.  The map below shows our route over the last two days.

As you can see from the map below there are basically two possible routes to West Yellowstone from here that are practical for a big motor home.  We can either continue on south on I-15 and cut over a little north of Idaho Falls and then north again OR we can go north out of Dillon and go east and then south.  The latter route is all two lane road and so today we decided to just drive part of it in the jeep and see how good the road is.  I had heard about a grade outside of Virginia City that was pretty steep.  It is.  According to a local trucker we talked to in the grocery store parking lot it is a 7% grade and 10 miles long.  That is a long slow grind in ar big rig and when you get to the top you have to go back down the other side.  

So on the map above you can see Virginia City about half way on the upper route.  That is a very old historic gold mining town with old store fronts and a Railroad Museum. 

The steep grade started there and the pictures below were taken after we had crested the top of the pass about 10 miles later and were looking down at the highway as it descends back into the valley.  That is as far was we went before turning around today.  I presume that rest of the road is fine.  I just wanted to check out the pass.

So we are now back in Dillon and I am debating with myself whether to take the longer, safer, route to the south or save about 70 miles and 45 minutes to an hour of driving time and go back through Virginia City.  I guess I will make up my mind in the morning. 

Unlike last year we are enjoying clear blue skies here with no smoke.  This is beautiful country this time of the year but I would not want to do a winter here.

We will be in West Yellowstone for five days and Arlyene's sister Sandy and her husband Ken will be there three of those days on their way to Bozeman.  We will have fun exploring together for a couple of days.  Then we will be off for a long drive to Heber City, UT for a couple of days and then back to Las Vegas with a stop in Beaver, UT.

So that's it for now.  Hope we get some interesting pictures to share from Yellowstone.