Chapter 32

[Janice writes]

In the morning, we set out on our tour of Yellowstone. Our first stop was at the west entrance to the park. We had to open a gate that had probably been closed for twenty-plus years and it took Bennie, Robby, Ted, and Charlie to get it open after shooting away the chain. We left it open. We pulled out and went to the Madison Information Station. We were among mountains and little rivers. We turned right toward the geysers' area and Old Faithful. I'm glad we had the SUV's and their four-wheel drive. The roads were in bad shape. We bumped and jarred our way to Old Faithful. It still went off on a regular basis. I wish we had a larger party to see this. The views are spectacular and very different from Georgia or Texas. We saw buffaloes and many of them. We did our best to follow the grand loop road all the way around. At only one spot, we had to work our way around due to the road's condition. There are so many things to see that I decided not to list them. I had brought a set of brochures that I marked and attached to this epistle. We spent the night in the park. Lake Yellowstone Hotel was beautiful though it wasn't going to last much longer without maintenance. I wanted to be inside. Somehow being trampled by wild animals didn't appeal to me as a way to go! We were taking our time and enjoyed everything. The herds were fantastic to watch. Charlie and Andy selected a pretty room with SJ. I knew what they had said but I liked Robby's words, "Trust but verify." The water in Lake Yellowstone was chilly. We left in the morning and went up to the Tower Falls and the Roosevelt area.

We spent a second night at the Roosevelt Lodge. It was more rustic but very enjoyable. Robby and Pam both enjoyed the sign about no WiFi, radio, TV, or air conditioning being available. We spent a nice time there though it was the herds of animals and their seeming fearlessness to us and to our vehicles that were amazing.

Our younger kids were a little shy about the size of the animals. Our three older, SJ, Andy, and Charlie, had talked about camping outside the night before. That talk had stopped when a huge bear walked between the hotel and the lake on our first evening! It acted like it owned the area and no one in our party wanted to dispute that assumption with it.

After some discussion, we shot a deer for our supper. Ted, Robby, Bennie, and Charlie skinned it out and cleaned its innards. As soon as their kill was brought inside for cooking, the predators were there and fighting over the leftovers. Andy and I looked the next day and there were only a couple of bones left. She said, "Mom, I'm glad we decided to sleep inside!"

I chuckled. "They are efficient, aren't they?" She nodded. We went back inside to help work on breakfast. We left, planning to make it back to the planes. but would ride the Blacktail Plateau Drive backwards. We did but almost had to turn back. The men were tired and we called it an early day at the Mammoth Hot Springs where there was another hotel. We took our suits and visited the springs and relaxed. We had supper and retired to our rooms for the night. Everyone agreed that we would return to our planes tomorrow. We had seen no sign that humans had been here in many years. I left a few of our flyers with a message written on the back and the date though I never expected to hear from anyone based upon them. I had done this consistently on our trip. We never heard a word from any of them.

The road down to Madison was the worst we had experienced. It took almost four hours to travel less than forty miles! I told my husbands that, if we ever did this again, I wanted horses! We had noticed some places out here where our planes could be landed. Charlie said something about that and I nixed it. We don't land outside of airports unless necessary. At one spot, we got out and walked it. It wasn't near as smooth as it looked. Charlie said, "I still think it could be done."