Meat! We actually had a great dinner tonight at a place off I 80 in Sidney Nebraska called Buffalo Point.

Yellowstone: A majestic place

We've settled for the night at Rock Springs, Wyoming, and we have about the only hotel room in the city. No town between Jackson and here had a place to stay. Jackson was too early in the evening to stop; and this was almost too late.

But the Holiday Inn in Rock Springs had a nice room with our name on it.

Sure beats the overnight facilities in the park.

But first, the park. Yellowstone. Amazing.

The photos I'm going to post below just don't do it justice; its grandeur is just difficult to note on a spot like this. But I'll try.

We reached Yellowstone through Cody, Wyoming. Washed the car and enjoyed the ode to Buffalo Bill.

The park is about 6,000 feet up on average. Much of it reaches farther up than that. Our hotel, the Lake Yellowstone Hotel, was on, duh, Lake Yellowstone.

The lake is the crown of a caldera (see graphic) that resulted from a massive volcanic explosion (ala Mount St. Helens) about 600,000 years ago. It is about 25,000 years overdue to erupt again. But that's another story. So the lake is a jewel of the park, not as famous as Old Faithful but clearly more pleasant an environment.

The hotel is very cool. It's one of the oldest spots in the park and at night buffalo just come up into the parking lot or the field outside. You can watch the beasts during breakfast or dinner.

Our first night out we did a boat tour of the lake and it is just amazing. At times about 150 feet deep, it is about 45 degrees during the summer, colder during the winter.

We hunted for buffalo that night and spotted other wildlife, as you'll see below.

The following day we did the tour of the upper park near the lake. We saw the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and its upper and lower falls, Mammoth Hot Springs, lunched at Roosevelt Lodge and the canyon area.

The sulphur eruptions there and at Norris really do smell. Peew!



That night we switched rooms to stay at the Lake Lodge near the hotel and had a cabin for the night. We figured if the beds were going to be just as uncomfortable (and they both were equal in this category) why spend an extra $150 for the hotel? It was a good decision. No waits for the rickety elevator and no need for bell service.

Our final day at the park, yesterday, Tuesday, took us to the Norris Basin, where the bulk of the geysers and hot spots of the park are located. They even warn you to stay on the trails or else. The signs should be in "Yellowstone For Dummies."



Then further down to Old Faithful and then south to the exit. We didn't leave the park until about 6 p.m. local time, and that's when we entered Grand Tetons National Park.



Again the Tetons are amazing. Beautiful mountains and the beautiful valley known as Jackson Hole. Which took us to Jackson, Wyoming, and our situation here today.

Enjoy this brief set of photos.

Cody


Day 1 at the Park

Old Faithful being a bit more faithful.

Old Faithful not cooperating.

Still same day (Saturday); off to Yellowstone, with a stop or two along the way

As I write this it is 1:40 a.m. local time and about 3:30 a.m. back home. We stopped in Gillette, Wyoming for the night as a staging ground for our trip to Yellowstone.

On the way we visited Deadwood in South Dakota. Cool touristy town with gambling. Slots, craps, poker. Very cool. Won some, lost some. But had a good dinner and then went on our way. It's the place 'Wild Bill' Hickok was killed at with his Dead Man's Hand of poker. He was marshal or sheriff there, if I recall. And what's up with the photo below. I think the poster's a fraud. No Way!

So now that we're in Gillette, we're poised to go over the Big Horn mountains in the morning and reach Yellowstone about midday local time, if not earlier.

Once we leave here, I'll try to post more images from the phone but that will end at the park, where there are no cell towers, no computer hookups and no telephones in the rooms. We'll be at the Lake Yellowstone Hotel in case of an emergency.

The above shot was just too nice. As we pulled out of Deadwood and headed into the Black Hills (Yes, the Lake Wales Passion Play is produced up here at the Black Hills Passion Play) the sun was going down and we couldn't pass up the opportunity to shoot the colorful image. Catherine snapped the shutter.

Keith

Different park (Mount Rushmore), same day (Saturday)

We drove from the Badlands to Mount Rushmore. Took a couple hours but the trip wasn't awful. Along the way we stopped in at Hall Drugs (a South of the Border type touristy trap) and nearly bought ourselves a pet jackalope (for those of you who don't believe they're real, check out the photos below.

Mount Rushmore is, in a word, amazing. The work took 14 years to create and not a life was lost. Well, not a human life in any event. The photos don't even begin to capture the enormity of 60-foot faces etched into the mountain's face.

We also had a taste of Teddy Roosevelt's favorite stew: Bison. Damn, it was good.

Keith

Next stop: Badlands National Park

I must confess: This was one cool stop we made Saturday. Better -- far better -- than I expected. The Badlands are very cool. Part dry river basin; part archaeological dig; fossil resource; awsome view, this park has it all. It's a shame we couldn't spend more time there, but we did cruise the entire loop road and climbed a few crags. Not bad for a 90-degree morning. Here are some of our favorite shots. Enjoy.

Keith

Dy-no-mite

This is near Badlands National Park. Sure, it's not everyday we get to take our pet dinosaurs out for a walk, but in South Dakota, anything is possible.

What the ...

As in "What the heck is that thing?"

OK, there's a 30-foot hammer and a 45-foot bison carving.

Right along I-90.

On someone's land.

Why?

What the heck are they doing there?

They appear to be carvings out of trees that didn't make it.

I have a feeling there's gonna be a lot of this weirdness here in South Dakota. The winters are cold and the summers hot. A volitile combination.

Keith

Yes, it's corny

This is the Corn Palace in Mitchell, S.D.

Bizarre? Yes.

Hokey? Yes.

Still Bizarre? Yes.

But it's a piece of Americana. And you'd wonder why state leaders decided to NOT make Mitchell the state capital.

Tilting (camera) at windmills

So we're driving across the great plaines of South Dakota, pop. two dozen, and we start seeing these huge, tall structures with slow-moving turbines. The windmills appear to be a couple hundred feet tall and the blades are a good 80 feet each. So slow they really are not.

Very cool we think. The temp was near 80.

Keith

Chicago, Chicago.

What can ya say. It's a heck of a town. One would never imagine saying "What a relief." but after driving through Gary, Ind., truly the armpit of the Midwest, it was a relief to get to Chicago.

This post is a day late (but not a dollar short) because of our inability to access the Internet from our Embassy Suites room in Minneapolis. At least the hotel credited me the access charge (yes, they charge to use their Internet.)

We dined in Uncle Abe's Deli (Yeah, no Chicago pizza) and then did the Sears Tower. What a view. You could see the lakefront, the highways we used, and even Trib Tower is in there someplace. Then as we departed we drive by the lakefront and admired all the sailbaots we saw from the tower.

Take a peek for yourself.

Pretty amazing, huh?

Keith

OK so it wasn't really hell

I confess. Mall of America was pretty cool. There's an underground aquarium (claims to be the largest such aquarium with the "best" shark encounter out there!). There are two decent roller coasters, a water flume, a bunch of kiddie rides and your basic county fair type games.

We did two coasters, the Pepsi Ripsaw and the Timberland Twister. The Twister was pretty cool. You'll see the photos in a sec. And the Ripsaw was interesting in that it had a theme and circled the entire theme park-within-a-mall.

The yellow/orange-and-blue coaster is the Twister and the brown one is the Ripsaw. The Twister is a cat-and-mouse type ride and its seats swirl, as you'll see. Similar to the spinning coaster at Disney's Animal Kingdom, but better in my humble opine.

Check out the park's site here: http://www.parkatmoa.com/ and the rcdb.com link here: http://rcdb.com/pd19.htm

Enjoy the ride(s).

Keith

Is this Mall Hell?

Welcome to mall hell as in Mall of America. More photos to come. The Mall of America is four stories tall and wraps around a theme park. It apparently has 4 million square feet of retail space and parking for a few less than a zillion cars. Thank goodness the mall wasn't too crowded on Friday (and Macy's had some good markdowns!).

Last bit of sunlight

Last bit of sunlight on the year's longest day as we near Minnesota at 9:15 our time and an hour later back home.

Seats for a new coaster head west.

Clear skies of the Midwest despite triple-length trucks.

Entering Indiana's Amish region.

We're in!

We just received confirmation that we have a room at the historic Lake Yellowstone Hotel for Sunday and Monday nights. Woo hoo. This has been an issue during the trip because rooms that were available were not when we tried to reserve. Until this morning.

Speaking of which, we're at the Holiday Inn Express just outside Pittsburgh. We were hoping for a Pirates game but they're out of town. Cubbies and White Sox are not in town today either, so we're hoping to catch a baseball game in Minneapolis instead. We dine in Chicago this eve and head to the Mall of America afterward or tomorrow.

Will update with photos today. Yesterday's drive from Maryland was marred by awful weather as the storm front from the Midwest moved east. Today is beautiful, however.

Chat later.

ttfn

Remi the puppeteer monkeys around.

The Shaull-Thompson gang minus Melissa and plus Liz.

Washington Monument behind the Washington mess.