Tuesday 6/28

The Linkels, a photo by Olivia Linkel on Flickr.

We were up and on the road through Hayden Valley trying to spot some animals by 6:30 this morning. Pam’s stuff was all packed up in the car and we had all of our stuff back in the FunV. Scott and I drove in the FunV first with Pam following behind with the kids. We saw a great herd of bison and stopped at the overlook where wolves are usually seen but they weren’t out yet and the kids were too cold tired and hungry for us to wait around. We saw no bear this morning either but I definitely cannot say the trip has been disappointing. We have averaged 3 sightings a day and that’s better than we ever expected.
We dropped the FunV off at the Marina which was slightly more central than Old Faithful for us to split up. We were heading out through the East Entrance toward Cody and Pam and Riley were heading South back to Jackson. We made the remainder of the drive in the Subearban down to Old Faithful.
We made it to the Old Faithful Inn shortly after 8 AM and enjoyed a great breakfast. We just missed the 9:15 eruption so we decided to kill some time in the gift shop where Scott and the kids bought t-shirts. We went to take our stuff back to the car and they changed into their t-shirts and I already had mine on so we all looked like real tourists. We headed over to the visitor center to save our spots and the kids played for a little while. We posed for a picture while the eruption was taking place and then headed back to the car for our ride back to the marina. On the way, we stopped at the Continental Divide, elevation 8391 to have a snowball fight. The kids were in flip flops and t-shirts and the snow was more like ice but it was a ton of fun.
We said our goodbyes and headed out through Fishing Bridge for the 81 mile drive to Cody. We have heard there are moose on this road but we were not hopeful. It was a beautiful drive over the mountains but other than a couple of bison and some birds, there were no animals. I guess we missed our shot on this trip because we skipped that road. Pam and I talked once we made it to Cody and they saw a moose in the Grand Tetons on the main road. We’ll get to see one eventually.
By the time we got into Cody around 3:00, exhaustion seems to have caught up with us. We originally planned to visit the Buffalo Bill Historical Museum and go to the rodeo tonight but we all said we would rather go to the pool and we needed to do laundry. We stopped in to Walmart to pick up a few grocery items and a hose clamp for our muffler, a bump apparently broke the bracket that was holding it to the undercarriage and we had a terrible squeak where the metal is rubbing.
We went to the pool around 4:00 and stayed in the pool and hot tub for about an hour and a half. Then we took showers and ate dinner while the laundry was going. The kids also got to watch a movie which made them really happy. For the first time ever, the rest of our trip is not rigidly planned. We have no reservations for the upcoming nights and may even spend the night in a Walmart parking lot. We have a long drive ahead tomorrow to get to Fort Laramie and Scottsbluff. I immensely enjoyed our stay in Yellowstone but I am also happy to be back on the road. The kids are ready to be home.