Oops. Day 8 and a couple other days...

Day 8

We left Dan’s place at around 1 and headed North to Thermopolis. We stopped briefly and spent a half hour in the hotsprings. Before we left, we walked through the Holiday Inn that has the big game museum in it. It had heads of everything from zebra’s to black rhino’s. I asked about the black rhino since I know it’s endangered and I was told about a new “catch and release” method of hunting that the owner of the Holiday Inn aided in starting. He designed the tip to the arrow that would safely knock the animal out for a short time just long enough to take the measurements necessary to create the mounts I had seen on the wall in the hotel.

We made it to Cody around 6 and lounged for a while in a bar that had internet. We left for a grocery store around 7 and then cooked dinner in a park. We came back to the bar at 9 for and hung out for a few hours, playing a Japanese game called Shogi. Kyle killed me, and we went to sleep.

Day 11

Finishing up Yellowstone National Park

Upper and Lower Falls- Artist Point closed

Virginia Cascade

Gibbon Falls

Fountain Paint Pot

Midway Geyser Basin

Black Sand Basin

And end by eating at a picnic table next to a lake by the Teton Mountains.

We slept at a Day’s Inn in Jackson Hole, WY, which had the best night attendant one could ask for. He was a goofy Mexican named Manuel and he let locals come in to the hotel to watch cable tv etc. We were sitting there using the internet in the lobby at 1am and two dripping guys in swimming suits came up to him and asked him to turn up the heat on the pool, he did. The pool had “closed” at 10. He also stationed himself in the lobby rather than at the desk so he could use the free computers and play chess online. Kyle played a few with him, giving him tips on moves etc. And I woke up early (6:30) to talk to him again before he left and get the free continental breakfast the Day’s Inn so generously provided to it’s customers who paid up to $290 off season for a room.

Day 12

Spent a couple hours exploring Jackson Hole and I talked to a lady in a camera shop who helped explain some settings on my Cannon S1IS. Jackson Hole was pretty grosely built up, and the park in the center of the town had four huge archways made out of hundreds of sets of antlers each. Each was probably 20 feet high and the entire arch , a bent cylinder, was easily 5 feet in diameter.

We drove North for a few miles to grab some shots of the Teatons in the mid morning light, then headed across the Teaton Pass to Idaho Falls, where we stayed for the night at Dad’s, a renowned truckstop, unfortunately lacking internet while they changed providers.

Day 13

Went West to Craters of the Moon, drove around the park and toured two of the four caves there. The caves were created when the surface of the lava flow cooled, while the hot lava flowed underneath. The lava flowing underneath released gasses which I presume created the hollowed caverns. I could of course be wrong, I only read half the sign.

From there we headed South and got lost. We realized this when we realized we were going North. We turned around and went South again. Apparently I had missed a turn… and then asked directions 15 miles later, and got wrong directions, and got an additional 15 miles lost.

We came to a resting area with a stream and talked to a couple families, grilled some burgers, Kyle swam, and watched a beaver build his dam. I explained that this was our way of bathing to the dad driving North with his daughter to see family in Montana in his ’76 car that had a pickup back. (He told me the name of the kind of car, but I forgot). The conversation went as follows:

Me: We rinse off every other day or so, this is a pretty good spot to do it.
Him: You should bring some soap in there to really wash off
Me: Yeah, get some Irish Spring, really freshen up the place (the park was nice, but grungy)
Him: Yeah, you’d get the beaver nice and clean too…. Nothing better than a nice clean beaver.

We stayed and talked for a while and then left.

The first town we came to, Wells, did not have a truck stop or hotel with free internet. The only place we found advertising free internet was Donna’s Ranch, a Nevada style Gentleman’s Club that was nicely outfitted with a hot tubs and other things I wouldn’t want to use after what might have happened in them previously.

I sat in the car there to see if I could get internet and a sign in page came up that said “Please cum inside for access ;)”

We passed.

We finally stopped in Ely, pronounced Ellie, as I was corrected by a gas station attendant when asking for the location of a truck stop. We found it and went to sleep, too tired to bother finding internet.

Keep readin,

Eric