On The Road: Day 8

Good morning all. Let me tell you about our adventure last night, and why I am updating you this morning instead of last night. We were planning on leaving the hotel in Custer around 6 like we did the day before because we had what we thought would be an 8 hour drive to Yellowstone. We woke up and the office to check out wasn't open until 7:30. So we had to wait. When the lady finally got there we checked out and she tried to get us to stay for breakfast. She talked to me and asked me all kinds of questions and when I finally said we're running an hour behind schedule, she said, "OK well thanks for stopping in." You think she was lonely?? Anyway, we got on the road and put Old Faithful into my GPS. Apparently Old Faithful is an hour more into the park than just the 8 hours of getting to the gate. So OK, 9 hours from our location and we were leaving an hour later than planned. We still would have gotten to the hotel in Butte by about 10 or 11, if all had gone according to plan. We drive for about 7 and a half hours and get to the East gate, only to find out that it's closed until 8pm. The worker at the gate told us that we had to go back out on the road we came to the city called Cody and then take another highway up to the Northeast entrance. Now if you've ever gone to Yellowstone, you know that there's only one road for about an hour past the closest city to the entrance you want to go through. So we U-turned and drove for an hour back the way we came on the same road, just to find out that the Northeast entrance is another 3 and a half hours away from Cody. So now we've tagged on 3 and a half hours to our trip. Then we FINALLY get to the Northeast entrance and look at the map to see where we needed to go to get to Old Faithful. Just our luck, of course, Old Faithful is down at the Southwest section of the park. So not only do we tag on another hour and half of driving down to the geyser, but we also have to to back track in order to get to the road we want to take to get to Butte.

Let me try to draw this image for you for those who have not been to Yellowstone. There Are four entrances, the Northeast, East, South, and West. The map looks like a wheel with spokes coming out from it and one road that goes through the middle of the park. Old Faithful is down between the West and South entrances and past the road in the road in the middle of the park. We entered in the NE gate which is the furthest point from Old Faithful. We took a left after getting into the park thinking that we could drive to the road that cuts across the circle and then down to the SW part of the park. About 3 miles into the park, we come across a sign that said the road is closed. So we turn back around, go all the way around the north end of the park and then south. Look at a map sometime and see how many times we drove on the same road to back track.

Moving on: We FINALLY get to Old Faithful. It's about 9pm and (LUCKILY) the gift shop closes at 9:30. So we run in and see if we can buy our souvenirs before they close. Oh did I mention that it's snowing?? Well, that's a lie. Snow implies fluffy, pretty snow. This was wind with dry snow so it hurt when, what looked like little Styrofoam balls, pelted you. AND all three of us are dressed for summer whether. Yes, we had long jeans and long sleeve shirts on, but we had as our thickest piece of clothing, a hoodie. We basically froze waiting for the geyser to erupt. By the time it did erupt it was almost dark, about 9:45. Once that was done we ran to the car, frozen to the bone, and thawed out before heading out to Butte, which is where I am right now.

We drove all the way to Butte (about 3 and half hours) and managed to get a little lost (tagging on another half hour). Finally at about 2 in the morning we get to the hotel. We check in and get our key, which of course doesn't work. So we had to go back to the front desk and the guy had to use his master key to get us into the hotel. I crashed as soon as I could and just woke up now.

So that's our adventure from yesterday. Today we drive to Sokane, WA. It's only a 5 hour drive so we'll be exploring a little along the way. I think this is where my first lesson from Skidmore comes into play: Learn to go with the flow. I'm one who likes to plan. This trip has definitely taught me to be prepared for what ever may go wrong, much like in class when I show up unprepared for class. I bet not many of you knew that I came to class unprepared huh?? haha well, that's life!! Be sure to check back and I'll let you know when I get to Spokane. Until then... Laters