My Trip to Yellowstone National Park, Day 4

Day 4

2 AM

I'm not even sure if I went to sleep, but I hear noises outside the tent. I try to convince myself that it's just other campers out and about, but then again, I'm not very convincing. I was scared stiff. I didn't move for a very long time. It was the scariest thing of my life. I am positive there were bears outside. Sorry, but i have no proof. Once again, I was too afraid to look out of the tent.

I finally fall asleep... and then wake up to my dad packing up the tent. I missed my run, sleeping ruins your life. So i get up, brush my teeth, and proceed to put the tent away. We found a cool slug, I named him Hue. Haha. We drive to our next destination, which I don't remember. I'm not even sure if we went anywhere. So we left the park and headed toward Cody, Wyoming.

We get to Cody and have to search hotels for a place to stay because my parents were not camping again. I wanted to stay at the Holiday Inn, but of course we stay at some random hotel called the Green Gables Inn. I was not a happy camper. We bring in our stuff and go out to dinner at Pizza Hut. Yum. I don't like pizza though, so I got a pasta bake. :) My mom convinced all of us to go to the "World Famous" Cody, Wyoming Rodeo. There is one everyday at 8 June - August.

The rodeo was so cool. There were only two 8 second rides though. After the Rodeo was over we headed back to the hotel and went to bed early, AGAIN! I don't know why my family likes to go to bed so early. It was quite annoying because I wasn't allowed to do anything because it was either too bright or noisy.

Very early in the moring, a COPS episode happened right outside our door! It was great. The lights woke everyone up and there was a guy running from the cops. He ran up the stairs and then I don't know what happened because I lost interest and fell back asleep again.

My Trip to Yellowstone National Park, Day 3

Day 3

We wake up, pack up the tent, and head back to Jackson. We go to the rec center where we can get showers for only 7$ a person! What a deal! Not. My dad and I go running before we take our showers though. We go on our run around the residential part of town. I found my house, for only 1.5 million dollars. We run up to the Snow King Ski Resort and go through a tunnel that leads us right into an active construction site. So we turn around at that point and head back to the center. My sister informs us that the showers have little buttons you have to press all the time to make the shower keep going. So I pay 7$ for my shower and begin pressing the button every 5 seconds like my sister said. It wasn't very warm either. But I finally felt clean after 3 days without a shower.

We repack the car and head up to Yellowstone National Park. As it turns out, you have to go through Grand Teton National Park to get to Yellowstone when you come up through Jackson. So we pay our 25$ ebtrance fee that "is good for 7 days and gets us into both parks". We enter and right off the bat try to find a campsite. We find a campground, with showers, or so we thought, right in the middle of bear country. Again. We set up and leave to go see Old Faithful.

It takes us around a two hour drive to get to the geyser, but we get there just in time. Everyone wsa leaving to go see it go off. I was wearing shorts, bad idea. It was FREEZING cold. Old Faithful goes off and we set out to go explore the rest of the basin around it. The pools were so blue and pretty and Morning Glory pool was one of the most cool things I've ever seen. There were bacterial deposits everywhere, painting the landscape with a orange and green pallatte. It starts to pour too much so we head for the lodge.

The food there was less than impressive. They did not have a very good selection. So i ate a ton of potato wedges. After we shopped around for a bit I'm pretty sure we went back to the campsite and went to bed. Lame. I'm not sure why my parents are such a big fan of going to bed so early. We had firewood and S'mores stuff, and yet.... nothing.

That night was freezing!!! I think my dad said there was a low of 32, which seriously is freezing. The dog was cold too, and since I was the only one awake, she climbed into my sleeping bag. She went all the way to the bottom, which made my sleeping bag about two to three feet shorter. So I froze to death the whole night. Ohhh my.

My Trip to Yellowstone National Park, Day 2

Day 2

I hear my parents wake up and say somethings that I don't remember because it was 3 AM. Yep, that was a sleepless night. My mom gets in the drivers seat and we go to Missoula. It is 4 in the morning. Breakfast time!! We park it at IHOP for a while. Then we figure out it is not going to open until after we're long gone. I want a sausage and cheese McGriddle from McDonald's. so we drive over there and McDonald's isn't even open yet. What the heck. So we drive to Burger King. I refused to eat there, but everyone else did. It smelled so good, and I was starving, but I was not backing down from my love of McDonald's and my hate for Burger King.

I'm not sure how long we drive until we park at another rest stop and sleep some more. I have no idea how long we stay there but it was a long time. Around a few hours is what I was told. I was getting grumpy from my lack of blood sugar so I told whoever was driving that they needed to STOP AT THE NEXT MCDONALD'S. Somewhere in Montana or Idaho I finally get my McDonald's. It was good stuff.

After stopping at a few hundred more rest areas, we somehow get back into Idaho and stop in Idaho Falls for lunch. I wanted Wendy's, but we go to Quizno's. It was super busy and the people who worked there were definitely tools. "You wanted...........Turkey.........Right....?" No I wanted a Moose sandwich, what do you think. I think no one can getting any slower/dumber, but that was before we got to register girl. "You guys got........Sandwhiches...........Right?" No, we got a burger and fries. Like seriously people of Idaho Falls Quizno's. Of course my mom remembers we forgot towels in this town, so we have to make another stop at the Fred Meyer to get some.

On the road again, we go through southern Idaho until we get to Wyoming. The air smells so sweet and fresh and I could've stayed there forever. And we did. A little bit up the road, a motorcyclist hit a deer. Luckily he was okay and he didn't even have to get into the ambulance. Everyone was out of their cars trying to see what was happening. It eventually passed and we went down the road trying to figure out where we were staying for the night. we pass a quaint campground and stop in. I see the bear signs and instantly want a hotel. I don't want to be a bear's dinner at all. Luckily, the campground was full anyways.

We drive more (Big surprise) and get to the lookout over Jackson, Wyoming. The mountains and valleys are just so breathtaking. But it was cold so we didn't stay up there for long. I begin to look up hotel prices but I knew we were going to end up camping anyways with my cheap father. Haha. We drive down the grade into Jackson and I am convinced I want to live there when i grow up. My mom screams "LOOK!! ITS BUBBA'S!" Yes, we did end up eating there that night. We drive to the Visitor's Center to find a campground. We drive to the place and this one doesn't have showers. But we stayed there anyways. There were signs all over the place saying "YOU ARE IN BEAR COUNTRY" "BE BEAR AWARE" "EVERYTHING SMELLS TO A BEAR: PUT IT AWAY AND LOCK IT UP" I was spooked.

We set up camp, got ready, and went back into Jackson for dinner. We get to Bubba's and have to wait for a good 45 minutes to eat. I got a chili cheese dog, my dad got a huge plate of like 3 meals, my mom got the "amazing" brisket, and who knows what my weird sister got. We eat, pay, and leave and g out on the town. Of course I hit up the shops. I got a pair of sweats, a sticker for my car, and a buffalo key chain. Jackson is a very busy place in the summer. It took us about 30 minutes just to get into the town each time.

The Grand Tetons surrounding us were amazing. They are so tall and majestic... But you better not be looking at those too long or you will hit the bison crossing the road. It was crazy!! They just cross the road doing their own thing. They are HUGE!! I love em.

We get back to the site and my parents decide it's time for bed. It's only 9, 8 PST. But yes, we go to bed. I was scared to death of bears. At around 2AM, I hear an animal outside. My mom hears it too. I was too afraid to move. We don't know if it was a bear, moose, or bison because we were all too afraid too look out the tent and check ;) I finally fall asleep around 3 AM.

My Trip to Yellowstone National Park, Day 1

Well, this being my first attempt at blogging, try not to make fun of me ;)

This year, my dad decided we were going to go on a whirlwind trip to Yellowstone. Not planned. No specific destinations. This would be a situation where you could really say we were "wingin' it".

Day 1

The plan was to leave on Wednesday around noon. That is not what happened, whatsoever. My day started off waking up at 8 or so in the morning to go running, oh yay. After the torture, my dad had to go into Spokane to do some last minute stuff for the Oasis, the coffee stand we own. "It'll only take a few hours, not too long." Ya, right. While my dad was in town, we all packed our bags, partially loaded the car, and waited. And Waited. And waited some more. Yep, still waiting. While waiting for the padre to get home so we could actually leave, my mom, sister, and I watched about seven episodes of "Cash Cab" on Discovery Channel. We decided we would totally win big bucks if we ever got stuck in the Cash Cab.

Finally, my dad gets home. We load up the car and leave. It is now about 4 PM. Definitely off schedule. We take the dog and head toward Spokane. Little did my sister and I know, we would have to stop at the Oasis again before we could leave. When we get back on the road its time for dinner. We get some Wendy's and I think we are finally on the road again. Nope. We pass Post Falls and my mom wants to go to Cabela's because she has never been there before. Of course, Lexie gets stuck in the car with the dog. So I wait in the car for about a half an hour with my stinky, panting, slobbering whippet for my parents and sister to get back. "Everything in there is too expensive, we have to stop at Wal-Mart." I am convinced we are never going to get to Yellowstone, ever.

FINALLY, we get on the road and head for our destination. But, since we brought the dog, we have to stop at every other rest stop so she can get out and go potty. And then we have to stop even more so my sister can go to the bathroom. I think she should just stop drinking liquids, period.

As it starts to get late, we get about an hour or so from Missoula, Montana and my parents decide its time to sleep. But where are we going to sleep? In the back parking lot of a rest stop, but of course. Truckers coming and leaving, traffic on the freeway, a thunderstorm with lightning, I got no sleep at all. The lightning would flash and wake me up. The dog was squishing me. AND since I was in the middle seat, both my parents had their seats reclined and i was feeling some claustrophobicness.