6-21-17

A breeze blew in last night and somewhere in the middle of the night, I needed covers and slept well until 6:00. 

I got up to shower and Lorelei joined me in the restroom to get ready. You see a lot of interesting things in campgrounds; three guys with bicycles with one of them sleeping on the picnic table, two ladies sleeping in the back of a pickup truck with a cab on it, an older lady with three dogs and families from all over. It's an interesting mix of people. 

We stopped to get gas and 45 minutes and the middle of nowhere later, we were at Golden Spike National Monument. We got to see the chain arrive and explored then went two hours further into the middle of nowhere to visit City of Rocks National Reserve. This was an identifying location for folks on the California Trail. 

Our final destination for the day was Yellowstone. A 4.5 hour drive through ranches and a few towns along the interstate put us in the park but we still had a drive to our campground across the park. 

While setting up our tent, the bungee in our tent pole broke. On any normal night, this would have been fine but on this night where I was hungry and the mosquitos were finding me to be a feast it was nearly too much. I got in the car to breathe and regroup. Lorelei was freaking out about the bugs so I told her to wait in the car and I took my Off with Deet, sprayed myself head to toe, put the tent up and loaded all our gear for the night into the tent. I was done within 20 minutes and jumped back in the car so we could grab dinner at the grill near the visitor center. There was absolutely no way I was cooking while being eaten to death and I don't think I could have convinced Lorelei to eat outside. 

A burger, fries and a Pepsi in my belly and our sunny dispositions returned. We changed into warmer and longer clothes to go to the ranger talk in indigenous people in Yellowstone at the amphitheater. By 10:00 the bugs had stopped trying to eat us and  we really enjoyed the talk. 

We returned to our tent and setup cots and sleeping bags and tucked ourselves in with warm fleece blankets we bought the day before. Batsman for Lorelei and Wonder Woman for me. We were quite comfortable and fell asleep easily.